muidlatif: bloggin' L!f3

Year End: 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:11:00 +0000

This year had been a blast! this is far most challenging year for me and this is where I put all my skills and experiences to the test. I thank each and everyone who had been following me without judgment, expectation and prejudice. I think some great people out there who had given me so much wonderful inputs and motivation to lift my spirits and to make me more self-conscious and humble.

All of my goals and targets achieved, and I praise Allah Al-Mighty for giving so much light into me. I am not saying I'm heading to that religious-i'm-holy-your-sinful-type-of-person because that's not who I am. I am just saying that keeping ourselves closer to God shape us in a better spirit and you will eventually become humble and feeling more contented, some may not accept the fact when people want to change for the better, and most agreed to hear if a person fall into darkness, they like people be in misery and despair. Some people are born to hate, i pity them.

I had done a lot of great works around, dealing with the best clients and worst, how I had contributed towards this creative economy and how to inspire others with the experiences I gain. Saya bukanlah golongan yang terdiri dari yang kedekut, thank God that I wasn't born that way. I like to help others so that I can learn something too.

If you like to go to my other blog which I focus more about the related-stories of creative awareness, kindly go to http://www.moedlatif.com/blog

Those who have facebook may add me at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Muid-Latif/57937932003?ref=mf and follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/muidlatif

Latest work 'Climbing Mount Chabang I'

Wishing a great Idul Adha, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry X-Mas to all my readers
_

Welcome 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:43:00 +0000

Dreams do come true, only those who had been working hard enough, most important, they live up in the existence of God and acknowledge every establishment around him. Most of us expect to be spoon-fed, worship and thought opportunity have to come as pleased. I felt so thankful to God and people that surround me, carry the patterns of my life to a wonderful journey.

Easy as it looks, it's never been. But through all the odds, when you do good things in life, God will help you through the darkest hours. Been bless with complicated family but truthfully kind and caring, friends who are there in need, a lover that shape me for a better person, and everyone, good, bad, whatever it counts, help and continuously make me stronger, a better person.

Last week had been a sober week, as Muslims in the world foresee the cruelty of the zionist, tearing the vulnerability of the Palestinian. Children and women being slaughtered, and on top of that, The American government had been rapidly supporting the Israel militans. God have mercy on those poor souls.

Pray is always a way to seek HIS help, but you can also do your part if you have a stable finance. MERCY welcome your donations:

Please make cheques payable to MERCY MALAYSIA.
CIMB account number: 1424-000-6561053.
For more information, please contact 03-2273 3999

(Thanks Kak Yasmin for this)

This post to be conclude in my new blog, at:
http://moedlatif.com/blog

;-). Ta!
_

Tatapan Dari Sanubari

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:16:00 +0000

Daku berkarya

Berbulan tak terkira badan dan mindaku ditempatkan di arena kerjaya yang cukup mencabar, dibanjiri satu demi satu masalah dan penyelesaian. Walaupun retak badan mengenangkan periuk nasi, yang penting nikmat diberi Ilahi memberikan seribu satu penghargaan dan kesyukuran.

Sumber rezeki terkini

Barangkali doa ibu bapa, adik beradik dan rakan-rakan mengutuhkan pancaroba kehidupan ini agar terus mencari rezeki, dan setakat ini, aku sendiri kagum dengan diriku atas kemampuan yang dapat dilakukan, dan ketabahanku direalisasikan berkat pengalaman dan hubungan dari industri kreatif.

Akhirnya, sebuah karya dari mata fikirku.

Karya terbaru untuk pameran KLue / UOX pada 13 Disember ini, di Sg. Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur.

Menjadi seorang pengkarya bukanlah sekelip mata, tanpa rancangan, penerokaan dan pengalaman serta bakat, kita nan membuahkan hasil yang memberikan sesuatu yang prestij. Sekilas bertutur bersama seorang ketua pensyarah di kolej seni kreatif terkenal di Bandar Sunway, beliau meluahkan rasa kagum atas kebolehanku mengagih bakat dalam pelbagai perkara dan menyampaikan sesuatu dengan baik untuk pelajar-pelajarnya. Mungkin kerana aku bukan bengis seperti pengarah-pengarah seni terkenal yang hanya ingin melindungi kelemahan diri mereka dengan berwatakkan kemegahan dengan banjiran pengiktirafan industry sebaliknya gagal memberikan ilmiah kepada masyarakat, turut mengutuk dan mencaci pereka muda dan artisan yang berdikari seperti saya. Jangan getar, selagi ada daya, aku akan terus berkarya dan terus memberikan anugerah yang diinspirasikan oleh Ilahi.

Fajar di Bukit Lagong, Sungai Buloh

Kami jurugambar-jurugambar Flickr Malaysia sekali lagi melapangkan masa kami dengan aktiviti terkini untuk merakamkan gambar dari tapak nurseri pesakit kusta di Sungai Buloh. Ia sebuah tempat yang memberikan seribu satu pengalaman yang membekalkan keindahan alam, dan penempatan masyarakat yang terperincil dan amat harmoni.

Julat Dinamik Tinggi (HDR) adalah antara konsep yang ingin dikecapi seterusnya mengunakan banyak kaedah suntingan gambar untuk memberikan lebih kualiti dan dinamik.

Dingin

Diri mencari sebuah jawapan mengenai cinta. Cinta itu suatu perasaan kompleks buat kamus kehidupan kerana aku seringkali dipupuk dengan perasaan negatif untuk membuka hatiku untuk melemahkan hatiku ini. Setiap sudut ingin mencari rasa yang dapat memenuhi kekosongan dan kesepian, namum tak selamanya bahagia kerana ragu-ragu yang hadir mengoyakkan ketulusan untuk bercinta.

Satu epilog yang indah tetapi kekekalan yang tak akan dikecapi. Aku akan sentiasa dihantui kekosongan, walaupun cinta lain diwarkahkan dari keluarga dan rakan tersayang.

Buatmu

Pedih, By Muid Latif

Pedih, satu perasaan ulung membara jiwa,
Melilit tangisan pilu membanjiri sanubari,
Tertanya kesangsian yang meretakkan harapan,
Kerna kesilapan aku kecilkan duniaku sepi.

Cinta senang dihembus kata,
Entah mana pula perasaan terkira,
Disudut ini goyang pemikiran,
Pendirianku dulu kukuh kian pudar.

Hadirmu dimana?
Pelukmu dimana?
Mata mindaku kepadamu mana?
Hilang perasaanku dimana?

Pengorbananku memberi seribu keikhlasan,
Saat ku memerlukanmu mengiringi kehampaan,
Kau getarkan keraguanmu dengan ungkitanku,
Sering salah tingkah lakuku dimatamu.

Kini ku mengulangi kesilapanku,
Kerana impianku yang diidamkan musnah,
Lalu aku pergi membawa diri,
Hanya kekosongan duka mengiringi destinasiku.

_
Ditulis tulus dari sanubari yang rendah dan terkilas, lara mencari kegelapan.

After The Rain, The Sun Shine Again

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Being Confident, Not Cocky, Facing Black Magic & Jealousy

This is how people fail to control their destiny of becoming someone, lost control over them, fulfill by jealousy, greed and desire to be their own God and forget that there’s a ticket in hell waiting for them. Stop and enoughlah all your dirty witch-crafting, hurting or 'kill' others because your life will end such misery, period. Remember, what goes around, comes around. Allah Maha Kuasa. You may do and sabotag bad things to people and you can get away with it, but people who are close to you that you ought to love will suffer do to your own doings.

Those who resent and irritated by my versatile ability and capability to be more than just a designer, it is how I had achieved in what I do, that put them in such competitive stage where they could not afford to handle. Their lost mind and heart could not bear to understand the reason why I stand for what I believe, to not just to support, but to bring changes so more people can become better than me, which I believe it is good, for a greater cause. I don’t even begin to understand some would personally attack me because their reservations over the things I do, that they fail to achieve like I do. Some of my recent enemies, who I help to shape their careers before, turn cold towards me. And they have the balls to say such discouraging things about me when they didn’t realize who got them the job and opportunity in the first place. Every time I bumped into them, I just couldn’t bare to see how disgraceful they are.

Question: how many still carry themselves as designer? Most of them move on to become a photographer without achieving their previous field. Some came easily by just doing cheap talk, paperwork but never ever execute and practise in the first place. I know they had move to another direction because they never put passion and heart in the first place, and frankly speaking, they fail at executing to the fullest to extend their own even skills because they fear their failure when they already fail at it.

In my case, a person would nag about my CV in Twitter without knowing me in person and only hear judgement and stories from those who threaten by my achievement, even sometimes a person spent such time to modify my Wikipedia page by putting ‘weird’ information in it, and at the end of the day, they have to face the fact they can’t get over me, because I'm important to their daily routine, and they could not move on in a positive state of mind. It’s a pure oxymoron that their employers paid them to stalk over my blog, websites and Wikipedia page to get frequent updated about my life. Even one individual got so envious over my 'small' toy collection.

Wow! I didn’t realize they 'worship' me too much, not to mention, they actually work for me by checking on me on regular routine! Cool huh? I don't even bother nak check on them, it's hilarious.

So to those who annoyed, irritate by me and my guts, don’t get to excited when I fall, because eventually I will come back with style more than you can imagine.

'Hikmah di Sebaliknya'

This is the reason that you need to have faith in God, because He put you up through so many obstacles in life. I remember after my prayers, I ask so that I can be strong to face challenges. Some that I fail, yet some I manage to see. Rezeki datang melimpah-limpah, berkat Yang Mulia, berkat kesabaran dan ketabahan kita. A big thank each day possible to God for giving this opportunity. I have no idea how good to be able to trust your destiny, the path that you choose and because in the closest existence, God truly loves you. It does not matter if you’re not Muslim, if you love Jesus or if you pray for Vishnu, religion is a must, because it makes you feel you existed for a reason, and for those who don’t have any religion, I gratefully felt sad for their lost to not be able to look into what is life.

To share, last week (16th October) after meeting up with my former employer who even gave me a present in a form of book entitle ‘Don’t Be Sad’, written by Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qami, made me in silent tears because the hard times that I have gone through.

After an incident that happen while I was driving back to Selayang from Cyberjaya, my car shifted on the other side of joint, drifted for four rounds on a highway. Imagine if there are cars coming all over in such heavy rain, I would not be writing here today. I came back in one piece. The power of faith is just enormously strong for me to know that God and Angels is always by your side, because He loves you so much after the challenge He had put your through, and for you to take on the challenge in such drastic positive measure.

So always remember, if you do the right things, God will give you the ray of light so that you can understand and start thankful each day. And I’m blessed with that. Alhamdulillah.

Being Stronger

The strength of my survival is because I’ve been blessed by God, literary, because I start to open up my heart, after being such a wild trash. I cannot do it with big help of family and frienda. Now that I have someone very important in my life, I continue to survive from learning how to stand on my feet again without help from the familiar faces. I struggled, learn and to cherish each moment I have. I see different perspective, the things I never care to bother all these years, and being in such wealth I forgot about what is a price tag and just buy and carry without thinking. Partly, I start to realize how much time and money I wasted, but I know that it’s not a thing or issue I should be regret, but instead looking on step ahead so that the next time I can do better.

Facebook has been the greatest therapy for me after getting my former religious advices from my Ustaz. I let things out completely, and then I start to realize how much love I received from countless of beautiful people who really take care and concern about the things I do, at my downfall. These beautiful supportive people had inspired me to learn more about life than just being on the top, but to try different shoe, in a different walks of life.

So my friends who read this, I love you dearly and thanks for being the light and guide and let me overcome my negativity.

How you present yourself

Being up and down, definitely more than just emotional roller coaster, three months had passed since I left my workplace in Cyberjaya, nevertheless would I think the sign of ‘SALADIN’ would forever stamp on my forehead, leaving a permanent mark wherever I go. Imagine strangers stop me by at Megamall of Midvalley asking about Saladin. I just realized I left Saladin team for almost two years.

The Good Things to come

Daily pressure, insomnia and sleepless mind exhausted with proposal, quotations and meetings, it had surely paid of after quite awhile. I’m currently working close with Malaysia AIDS Council to handle two projects, one is a graffiti illustration for upcoming World AIDS Day and another one is strictly confidential. Last weekend, I just contribute my effort to help the artist's backdrop for World Peace Festival 2008 in Stadium Bukit Jalil. Thanks to Kamal Sabran for inviting me to join the fellow talented visual artists.

Recently awarded by a contractor to engage interactive kiosk development for a national government body, I had drooling over the research and content of Malaysia History and origin. It’s probably one of the best masterpiece I am currently working with and a product to be proud of, dealing with the same team that delivered the Angkasawan Programme Interactive Kiosk. With few lines of incoming website development from various agencies, I even have the opportunity to work with upcoming recording artist to design their artwork album covers and one of my rare opportunity, to pitch a project for a well-known figure from Hollywood. Even if I won't be able to work with him, I just know that out there, someone truly appreciate what I do and the talent I have, it's awesome. Alhamdulillah.

My latest illustration 'Suraya' was also featured in KLue's October Issue of Pulse. Thanks Ai Leen for the small feature!

Next year, it would be a more hectic yet positive year for me, as I will be handling Kuala Lumpur Design Week together with strong team that brought you the previous Massive Territory Conference and MIDI Conference that feature international speakers like Karim Rashid, Joshua Davis and Niko Stumpo. It’s never a year for me to relax, but double the amount of work I did, and to create more ability in project and event management.

And I still proud of telling that I’m just a designer :-)

Ta!

The Eid Mubarak Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:04:00 +0000

Apparently this is face after getting a bad food poisonin' (a day before) this meet-up at Devi's Corner, Bangsar on the 7th of September. Photo by Halimi Saidi.

Despite of being drowsy yet creative and 'freelancing', I managed to catch up on some design books, read some articles about Malay history, watch latest Naruto & Bleach from Dattebayo, 'Fear Itself' and upcoming 'True Blood' starring Anna Paquin, and manage to watch two hillarious movies 'Love Guru' & 'Meet The Zohan'. I got all the love and support from my family and beloved friends so I was very composed the entire one month and a half though I thought I just woke up from a terrible nightmare, seriously.

A part from that, I had a great time this month, even manage to berbuka puasa with my dearest Gjie Aziz, Fynaz, Lin, Suzie, Prakash, Jolene, Abby, Eddie, Melissa Saila and her mum, the legendary actress Mariani (imagine meeting Julie Andrews ;-). The next week, I had my yumcha session with another dearest friends, Oya and Halimi. We actually end up discussing politics and 'sensasi selebriti!'.

Had a great photo shoot with the theme 'Men & Baju Melayu' by Mr. Crewcut again, this time I felt more easy working with Mr. K. I can't wait for the final result. Eventually I met another model that night, Hamdi. Very funny guy.

Was also invited to Jay Lim's pre-launch of Miss Hua Exhibition last weekend and I will be going to Penang to give a talk in Han Chiang College, Penang from 18-20 and will be staying over at Nony's place in Ayer Hitam. Hope the weather is good for photography. Can't wait!

What's Cookin?

I guess my forte for cooking is always the beautiful green vege's. I love vege but I ain't vegetarian though. Recipe is below. Anyway, I got so freaked out after the food poison so I'm eating more fresh green. My next menu will be fresh cabbages, kelp noodle with dried tofu and carrots. Yum!

Let's cook Muid's style:

Step 1:
Prepare yourself a big frying pan or kuali. Letak satu piring teh (50-100ml) of olive oil or cooking oil, prepare half tea spoon of salt, slices of Garlic and Onion. Heat em up, wait for few minutes till the oil boils, then masuk one bit by one bit.

Step 2:
Put some baby Shrimp or Slices of chicken meat, stir it all together, but make sure you don't overcook.

Step 3:
Cherry Tomato, Long Peas (yang sudah dihiris), Mushroom, Baby Corn & Broccoli, mix and toss em up, and voila! Jangan lupa ambil gambar pakai lens 50mm :P

My mum says add some corn flour to make it moisty or soy sauce (kicap), it's an option only lah, so I don't like to put those option sebab nanti tahan lama.

Neu Photography

Merdeka-ria: When it comes to our local independence day, I always wanted to utilized the best time to go out rather than just sit at home because I want to make it as memorialize as I can. Well, so far, all of my Merdeka celebration had been so memorable that I still could not forget how me and my sister Abby almost got drowned at Santubong Beach, Sarawak in 1993 because we went out chasing those Mudskipper until we realized we swam too far. *sigh* (*keluhan*)

The photos above was taken at the Bukit Setapak area on our way to our sister's place where she lives very close to Anwar Ibrahim's residence. Since that day, we know The Annexe of Central Market had Arts For Grabs, I really wanted to go there but I end up at KLCC instead, having tea with my family at Little Penang Cafe after the whole family went to watch Susuk with my sister's family.

Shafina sent us an sms earlier to hang out at a place called Pink Sage. Me and my sister went there after we went to my sister's place (Aniq). Pink Sage has great menu of yummilicious food, drink and cakes. We had our breakfast set with pancakes.

After sending back our parents to the carpark, me and Abby went to see Gjie & Fynaz at Great Eastern Mall, Ampang and we hang out at O'Brian sandwich. Had a good Merdeka outing.

World Photo Walk: Selected Shots

As usual, any other weekend is the best time to make use of my camera. KLickr once again made photowalk a worthwhile. We had our early warm up before the real photo walk starts. With us is Asha, Kamarul (my UiTM college mate), Abby, Effa, Nagen, Syiqin, Shafina, Ripi and me.

Nagen looking bluish Jedi on a rainy day

The reversed Mr. Cricket

The pathway of survival

We had an earlier meet-up Flickr group had a great success with our 29th monthly meetup, dated 23 August 2008 with great photography walk at Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, thanks to all who made it. I had such a great time and meet great new friends. I was also model for that day (perasan).

Photos by Prakash Daniel (DMP Collective)

The day after, we (me, Abby, Prakash, Jolene, Shafina, Nagen & Ripi) went to Yuritei Japanese restaurant near KLPac, Sentul, to celebrate our dearest friend, Syiqin who came all the way from Penang. Since I was financialy 'ill' , I found a great alternative, praise the Al-Mighty God for inspiring me with this left hand with talent. I manage to give Syiqin a great gift for her, in a form of sketches. Alhamdulillah.

This is Syiqin :-)

This is Syiqin, illustrated, framed in nice IKEA white frame.

Aperture Workshop with Jen Siow:

Model: Linda

Aperture 2 is one of my favorite Photo editing software in Mac. Aperture is affortable compare to Adobe Lightroom, however, I always love to use both application to suit my photos. Tai of EcazStudio invited me to come to this workshop organized by Click! & GoLive at Uptown, Damansara Utama. I paid RM150 for this class and all participant received free iPod Shuffle (1GB). Let see, education and tips by renown and noted legend, Jen Siow, free food, good friends around (Halimi, Musri, Tze Meng, TK, Jinny Wong), free model shooting spree and free iPod, it's way more worth than spending on a Nike shoe (whoops!).

I didn't expect we had a shooting session as I thought it was just a sit-and-hear kinda seminar. The organizer brought us with two cute models at TTDI park and I must say, I manage to get some good shot and explore more of what I can do with photography. Having said that, I still love towards my passion in illustration and design. Ta-da to dat! ;-)

Outro:
Meantime updating my creative portfolio and CV, I would like to wish all my Muslim friends a happy Eid Mubarak!

_
dancing with my teddiebear with affection

I'm Not Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:45:00 +0000

‘I’m not myself’ describe me for not be able to:

Work my magic on creativity, which means more design and artworks (two artwork is not good enough at the age of three decade).
I failed to submit my work (CI) which I suppose to deliver like 3 weeks ago and still slowly working on it due to lack of experience. Means more hardwork!
Being caught up with different ‘interest’ of industry (Hint: NGO, UNICEF)
Too overwhelmed and concerned by the keyword ‘new media’
Was not able to reply email on time due to misplace of brain cells (brain needs defragmentation)
Was not able to scan my sketches that I did in 2 weeks, two of ‘em on plane to Singapore.

I’m not myself lately. I lost those words that give me the motivation to be at a place where I am able to stand tall. I was completely transparent somehow. No, this is not another post to gain sympathy or try to sound as if I’m pathetic. Having said that, there are two Malaysian Kancil Award designer @ recipients who are currently been talking about me and very ‘irritated’ by me due to my personal note from my Facebook. Kadang-kala these jantan perangai cam Pariz Hilton kutuk lahanat mulut kalah perempuan. Anyway, it's okay, it's a privilege for people like them to use that reputation who definitely have the right to 'kutuk small-small' underdog designer like me. It’s good to know there’s people like this, because it makes me want to boost my creative and become hardworking even more.

I learned too much only these three weeks. I read more book than I used to. I met people who are really serious about helping the industry grow and at the opposite side, I also meet people who want to save mother nature and let others know the negative impact of global warming. I felt with so much guilt because I had to throw away those cigarettes, but in the same time, I just need to smoke my lungs off.

Today (4th of August), I was even frustrated because I was not able to carry by readings in my Qiraati class with my Ustaz. I can see how frustrated he was with me for not be able to read fluently. Lepas solat Asar nak praktis balik.

I was out jogging for few minutes before Mahgrib. As usual with my jogging sneakers (yang sedap) and iPod to keep me going little bit bouncin' with Madlib 'in the air'. Just on my way back after ‘tawaf' (a round in the housing area and park, reaching up 7.30 PM), I came across something extra-ordinary. It was so beautiful yet astonishing.. (it's so National Geographic). I stand for few minutes, gasping and starring at the sky. At first I thought it was just flock of birds trying to get back to their nests but it was otherwise.

There was thousands of termite swarmer (kekatu) on the air, and with them, are countless flock of birds from sparrows, Swift (mostly from the passerine species), crows and surprisingly, bats! Now this is no Dark Night ya’all. This is real one yang ‘comel lotey’ (cute). I was so excited to see how these flying beings feed themselves somehow stand unite despite different species and groups. I guess every living things have balance and harmony.

Learning the big deal of Corporate Identity Guidelines.

I was 'terrified' with the whole thing. I was given an assignment to come up with CI for my previous company to work on New Media CI guidelines because when I got my hands of others example of CI, it seems like the one I’m working with doesn’t gel with anything. It doesn’t relate to anything, because the last two weeks, I’m seeing ignorance in each department, neglecting what is CI and brand guide, thus showing more of personal execution among them (there were to much inconsistency), which I found very disturbing. I don’t know how people can adapt branding and guidelines and ignore the importance of it. Brand guide is set to give a better apprentice, but I guess people are very anti-visual. I don't know why we are going so way back to RTM.

One of industrial professional come to me and told me: “Muid, do you know to do a Corporate Identity, most company charge at RM25,000?” I couldn’t figure out more. Now I have to look at my communication brief what is required (if I got one).

Now, I have three upcoming talks (from USM, to UiTM Perak and 'A Journey to Nanyang: Dance with the Flowers' exhibition in Penang), meantime preparing for upcoming Kuala Lumpur Design Week (KLDW) :) Join our group in facebook to keep yourself updated with KLDW.

Here's my collaboration with the talented Mr. Fariz Hanapiah (my part is on the illustration) for Astro's GAIA drama series (Season 2) directed by Nizam Zakaria.

(If you can see this, click here to view the video). The compression of Vimeo is way to great compared to youtube.com.

(I’m)Possible

There’s a possibility that I will be ‘closing’ this blog as I want my web audience to focus on my work. I will transfer most of my personal post in facebook notes (by invitation only!) as I’m working on my portfolio revamp to keep the consistency of my website flawless and RSS ‘feed-able’. So this blog will be on archive, and most industrial topic and related creative venture will be posted in Digital Malaya instead.

New Media Policy & Practice Mini Summit in Conjunction of International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA2008)

I was invited last two weeks ago (23-27 July) to attend this wonderful event (with workshop). Besides that, I manage to present my work at Pecha Kucha @ TheaterWorks, Singapore. It has definitely open up my mind to another perspective about Malaysia’s industry especially in New Media Education. Thanks to Asia-Europe Foundation for the great hostility for providing me the accommodation, transportation, ‘makan-makan’ and continuous support not forgetting new friendship and alliance especially to meet people like Rob van Kranenburg, Katelijn (so adorable), Adam Somlai-Fisher (amazing Flash/ActionScript writer/Designer), Floor Van Spaendonck (Facebook buddies), Atteqa, Sally Jane Norman and others. I gain more knowledge sharing and information of today’s modern practice of New Media, and of course, to find out what exactly is the Helsinki Agenda. There's just too much things to learn, and I wish a lot of my fellow Malaysian designer can join me here :(

Sally's sister, me & Floor

Me & Adam

More interesting moment to add; I met (again), my buddy Roopesh even we had great discussion together with Prayas Abjinav for late night snack in my hotel room. Roopesh had also given me a tour for his 'Relocation' exhibition in Singapore Management University (SMU), features work of Hasnul J. Saidon (till now I never meet this lad). I will write about full details of what I’ve learn in Digital Malaya article soon, insya’Allah.

Singapore, a place for food and vacation, not for work:

My favorite coffee house in Singapore, TCC and this is the super-delicious Cream of Fennel with Smoke Salmon Soup. Yummy!

Lovin the J.Co donuts. How come they don't have it here in Malaysia?

Having said that, I miss the lovely chicken rice at Chee Meng at Jalan Bukit Bintang opposite Low Yatt!

Yogyakarta / Jogjakarta Media Arts Festival

Apparently I had been given a slot to present my new media work and study case in the ongoing Cellbuttons #2 at the Yogyakarta Media Arts Festival where I will be going around 18-20 August (Insya’Allah). I still couldn't figure out why some called Yogya and some called Jogja. I'm going to make a short vacation by visiting the beautiful temples because I was delighted by Kieran's photoworks during his trip few weeks ago with his buddies.

Atilia’s Ranjau Launch & Sunrise Jazz Festival

Me, Kieran, Atilia & Becky @ Bangkok Jazz

Thanks Fizar for giving this opportunity to promote Digital Malaya Project at the launch of Atilia’s MTV ‘Ranjau’. The event had been a great success with the great support of everyone and I’m very thankful to be a part of it. I also would like to congrats my friend, Noryn Aziz and his lovable dear manager, Abg Sam Kassim, for bringing glorious victory and made Malaysia proud. Let’s have another seafood dinner guys!

The Incredible Elvira & Hunny Madu.

my pal, Dennis Lau

I was there last week (2nd August) to support my friend Hunny Madu and Phunk Mob (too awesome!), but I was so amazed that the local talented singer call Elvira who had actually sang one of my most favorite number by Mary J. Blige, ‘The Love I Never Had’.

Ashraf

Abby & Prakash

Prakash, MC, MC's friend, Mika (Sona) & Abby

Eventually, everything went to what I expected, relaxed but balancing work and play.
_

A Halt for Workaholic Life of ...

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:44:00 +0000

There's a two month frame for me. I'm leaving a remarkable job that earn me not an award that I can proud off, BUT acknowledgment of my capacity as a creative person who had contributed in many fields to enrich and 'empowered' people on how they see and experience new media especially in the Government sector/industry. I'm leaving a job that made me earn more than RM84, 000k per year. Some might say I'm insane, some are excited to see me back in the scene, but what's in it for me? I have been working non stop ever since I work on WCIT & IAP. In fact, there had been to much of paperworks for me, spent to much time reading and replying emails and spent hours of meetings. I'd longed for a break. That's all I can say. I left my creative work too long and I need to re-charge so I can continuously become creative and inspire to others.

I'm quite happy. It actually took me three (3) months before I made up my mind. I felt that now I need to fully utilize before I start back working as a freelancer and move on to a solid place that can offer me permanent position even how low it can be. I believe it won’t bother me as long as if fits the bill ;-). There are always times your ‘saham’ can fall or raise, of course I don’t want to choose a workplace that is far away from me, ever again! Since the hike of petrol is insane, besides spending up to RM1,200 per month on travel expense, I could not imagine seeing my life in ‘danger’ of driving back and forth from Selayang to Cyberjaya, not forgetting no company insurance covered and no travel allowance, no EPF, disapprove house bank loans and definitely no bonus :-).

Last Friday, dated 20th June was my official day that I discuss with my H.O.D for Branding & Communication and I will be leaving that nice sanctuary by end of July to pursue my creative journey once again. I bumped into my PM, Kamal from Saladin in the H.Q foyer and he said something really made me so 'f**ked-up'. He invited me for a farewell on my last day, can you believe that? I actually felt to that very moment like crying (damn!), but I told him no to do farewell to me. I just thought and always felt Saladin team was a family to me, except for that 'Mr. Yo! Bro, collabro' (buat dunno je bila berselisih). I'm gonna miss everyone so much especially my ex-collegue's from CMD and Saladin (Especially my greatest boss I had worked with, Hasnul Hadi) You can never ever find a boss who is so creative and give you Keroro figure set for your birthday :-). I'm actually going to miss the fish pond in MDeC because every month, I feed the fish with biscuts and bread I bought for them.

Now, I really have to put this in my blog because after my discussion with my buddy, Roul, he just said something deep and so fresh because I felt a bit down and vulnerable for a while after discovered someone leaving me a bad impression.

'qualifications doesn't justifies.. and not an authorization for you to undermine people's achievement..' and 'regretting your decisions is an act of denying your intelligence...'

Thanks Roul. Normally I gave you advices in your career and life, but today, you help me out. :)

That Enlighten Moment

Disclaimer: this post is not to show people that I'm a religious person, but this post is to tell you that wherever you are, whatever you do, God loves you. God never left you behind, it is you who left God behind. At times (and all the time), you need to pray and remember God, and for that you know the purpose of your life and what you would like to achieve.

Recently, my mind got so hair wired. Along with my huge friends and family, I felt the necessary to felt sorrow. I was mad, sad, angry, and unable to forgive myself for what I've done. I called my heart for few prayers and doa. It's been awhile I never touched my tasbih. It was always the huya-huya party, and I left my purity behind. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Kuasa. I felt that special night made me calmed. I always know that prayers made me neutralized again, back to my senses, and I felt more relaxed. Azam saya nak start balik baca Muqaddam (actually dah start mengaji) and al-Quran and insya'Allah I try my best to fulfill my azam during my breaks. I always have this thoughts but my will wasn't that strong. Now I break it and felt in a new level. I know by doing this, I benefit a lot of things that can make me become more 'stable' and humble.

I actually felt shukor (thankful) because I can still manage to balance my life well. There are few said that I'm just being 'kiasu' but that's not the case. I believe in my confidence and sometimes it is necessary you mention what are the good doings that you did (bukan sekadar nak tutup dosa or to cover up your sins) BUT to let others know what you do, so that in some way it will inspire others. There are others out there who like to assume things about you, even accuse for false information on you just to bring your self-esteem down. You do good things in your life, Insya'Allah, rezeki akan Tuhan berikan. Buat masa ni Alhamdulillah, sebab Muid tak pernah aniayai orang atau tutup periuk nasi orang. I know few who did talk bad things about me have a very miserable life. They can never find their peace. Either they are doing not very well in their life or in their career. Whatever the case, I felt sorry for them. God is great so I promise myself not to be like them :-) and keep on doing the right and good things in life.

p/s: Did I tell you guys my ustad is very garang. Got rotan summore.. if I salah pronounce my word, dia ketuk meja. Sure kena rotan if I'm a kid :P. which also reminds me to finish of reading 'I Am Muslim' by our dear Dina Zaman.

Hey Moe, long time no click!

Here are my latest HDR's processing. Those photo walk with me fellow photographers really kicking back my Adobe™ Photoshop skills once again. Kudos to Shaf, Abby, Ripi, Prakash, Vic, Nagen, Syiqin, Rafiq, Suzie and Nell for being my photo buddies.

Neu designs werks?

Managed to produce few artwork last month and this month. It feels good to do artwork. I'm currently studying the history of Hang Li Po and studying another sea life 'Nautilus'.

Urbanscapes 2008

As Digital Malaya Project reborn in a new website (finally!), we manage to kick off with a new exhibition with KLue, for Urbanscapes 2008. The show was a huge success attended by 6,000 Malaysians and tourists.

Photos by Mizie @ Flickr.

Me, best friend back in UiTM, Nadiah, and sister Abby. Photos by Eka.

I also had a nice chat with my old friends, including the one I keep in touch regularly, Nadiah! (Nad, considered regular la kan? :P). Eka & Nad, thanks to both of you guys for coming that day :). Yes, I owe you delicious pasta... Picolomondo?

My dearest Atilia (Malaysia Jazz Princes), Prakash (Orange), me & Damien (Urbanscapes Artist). Photos by Halimi Saidi.

We would like to thank the Urbanscapes team, everyone who came to our gallery including Atilia. Although she just finish her performance that night, she still came and drop by our place. Thanks Tia, te quiero mucho! and of course, our official printer partner, EcazStudios for printing our photos for the exhibition. Tai & Halimi, you guys rawk!

Will There Ever Be A Better Place?

As a citizen of Malaysia, here's what I think of what is going on today, the reality of Malaysia. When some politicians want to hold on to power, they do actions that affect us all. Few days ago, I read a headline in the newspapers that says; 'PM ensures safety for Rakyat'. I beg to differ.

A lot of things is going on, I mean a lot. Serious crime is rising up. More illegal works come to Malaysia, some threatened and snatch those who took public transportation, in this case both me and my sister had confronted these sick bastard.

I came across road bullies who desperately seek for fights among other race. Women drivers are getting more furious and rude on the road. Toleration has gone almost 0%. I get 'racial look' each week from different car drivers and in public places. It's that obvious. When I was involved in Malaysian Artistes for Unity, what I'm currently experiencing is the other way around. I try to create unity and love among with others. Some said don't give them faces, but that's never a good solution. Most of the time I tolerate to people around me. Even when people are lining up, I give them way. Is that nobility or stupidity? :)

A friend of mine just got snatched on an escalator IN Pavillion mall, Kuala Lumpur. She lost her money and her parking ticket. It's even sad that the security and management didn't want to take responsible furthermore ask my friend to pay for the ticket for replacement due to f*cking policy.

Another friend of mine from Penang told me a lady was filling her petrol in a petrol station and during filling up the tank, when someone (thief) got in her car and hide inside. It was the petrol attendant who saw it and asks the lady to get in the counter so she will be safe. Tips: Always lock your car at the petrol station.

If you remember few weeks back, the rude 'mat rempit' (motorcyclist) attacked four ladies in a petrol station in Bangsar and some of them got injured.

People are kidnapping children to sell kids outside the country. Drug addicts sell their new born baby for few Ringgits to get new crack. Life is that cheap.

More rape cases increase each day.

Some teachers (especially in Bukit Idaman High School) is insulting and discriminating their students. I met rude prejudice teachers and they are injecting politics to their students education because they have no other scapegoats or other place to satisfy their anger towards their career and their life. Even among teachers, a lot a playing dirty just to gain more power and positions. Well, from my experience, not only teachers, but lecturers are spoiling their students, and of course, the men vs. women students where student with a the big 'V' gets more A+ from lecturers than the hardworking boys like us.

Sanctuary is no longer a sanctuary. Surau and mosque become a 'hot' place for larcenist to steal audio system (mic, speakers, cables, etc). This is a place where we thought AMIN was said out loud when we perform our prayers but soon after solat, no body cares to shake hands and greet Salam to each other. It's very frustrating.

Rakyat fear by the police? Yes, SOME of them are the certified mobs. I know there are some who are nice but most of them are pure samseng. I remember that I saw group of traffic police man sit in a mamak warung with a very hostile attitude, ask for this and that from the servant. What a poor guy. Surprisingly that man in uniform didn't even pay for what they eat and drink. They just took off. By far, I met 3 cops who's asking for bribe. My mom who also works with Bukit Aman (Police) told me to be extra careful with them. If someone from police department advise you to be extra careful with police man, which means we are seeing more corruption among them.

Last but not least, 'get rid of the consultants! they are wasting our company's money'. As I witness and heard over a meeting last friday, 4th of July in a company here in Cyberjaya. This is how people 'kill' of people who want to make a life for their living. Such a cruel villain mindset of today's Malays. Congratulations! wow.. I'm actually impressed with so called 'modern' and open-minded people. :-)

I encourage and advice people to be smart, level-headed, don't be mad all the time, try to be patience, be nice to people, appreciate things around you, do some charity, do some donation (jangan kemut duit, if you can pay for a RM300 dress, why can't put more than a dollar in a tabung surau :).

Outro: Back At One

Tonight (8th of July), I was fooling around in front of the mirror and in my room, slowly twisting my lap and waist with Suzanne Vega's Caramel. That song really get me all mysteriously groove. Such a beautiful greatly written song (love how they use it for CLOSER trailer). It's about how you longed for that person, but you can't get that person, so you have to let it go. Let... it.. go... yeah, i know so.

"Caramel"

It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long for you.

It won't do
to stir a deep desire,
to fan a hidden fire
that can never burn true.

I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;

But I don't know
how I would live with myself,
what I'd forgive of myself
if you don't go.

So goodbye,
sweet appetite,
no single bite
could satisfy...

I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;

But I don't know
what I would give of myself,
how I would live with myself
if you don't go.

It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long
for you.

_

Bicara Kehidupan Seorang Pereka dan Artis Digital

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:41:00 +0000

P. Ramlee The Musical, A Must See!

I was moved and touched by the phenomenal performance proudly by Malaysians. Most important, it's about the legendary multi talented the late, Tan Sri P. Ramlee!

Board Members of Creative Commons Malaysia (Wan Peng, Muid, Hasnul Hadi) with Hasnul's dearly wife, Kak Riza.

I have to take a bow to amazing actress that I admire and known in person, they are my dear friend Atilia, Liza Hanim and Melissa Saila. Gosh, they are in control of the stage, and I hope Kak Tiara will have it more in the coming future. From my point of view, These beautiful ladies sing their hearts out and unbelievably impressive with their character.

Worth of sms voting during those Audition days. Chedd with my sister Abby.

I'm thrilled to meet Pat. He's supercool!

Chedd had great choreography moves and did a great role while Pat Ibrahim really did an amazing, wonderful job on choreography. It's really hard work, and it's a success! Kudos to all!

The interactive visual accompanied at the end made me in tears to have such amazing person on earth, the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee. That show had really put a moved on my heart. A remarkable show I will never forget.

al-Fatiha to our beloved.

The Saturday Workout

I had spent my day on Saturday 14th by cleaning up my room, mopping the floor and went out with Abby to get a card for our father's day. I manage to buy dinner for the whole family. But before that night. I went jogging with my pet brother at this park after Batu Caves heading to Kepong called Kepong Metropolitan Park. What so special about this park, is the only place you can see families with their kids playing kites on the sky.

It was a big spin for me to go for a jog with Kamal and I tell you, it's really good because your muscle starts to ache. He asked sarcastically 'so you really wanna go for 3 more rounds'?. It was a great excercise. On my last jog on the track we started, I stop and look up in the sky. There it was, as the kites freezed in the air. I was just silent breeze passing through me, and it made me feel so light and felt such purify. I'm doing this jogging session again, and probably bring my SLR with me. It's a great place to do photography.

The Call of Nature

The 10th till 11th of May marked a special date for me and my friends to an amazing, breast-taking (I mean breath-taking) journey of the wonderful Berkelah Waterfall on the way to Kuantan, Pahang. It's been awhile since my scout days in Ipoh, Perak. I always love camping. I remember my last camping was with my schoolmate from SM Kepong when we went to this hutan nearby Rawang. It was so freaky that there is one night the Ustad who followed us asked us to walk to our camp faster because we we're followed by an object flying from top of trees.

Photos by K:Rew. Thanks!

So back to Berkelah, I had the best time in my life with my friend, Mr. K:Rew, Rajan, Syed, Two Army Officer and one Police officer. It was so awesome and I actually felt small disappointed with myself that I didn't bring my SLR camera along. We had our 2 days and one night camping. Believe me, this is one experience you never forget! The cool, fresh waterfall was so tranquil and so purifying. I thought we had at least swim 5 times a day. We had great food with us, and such great company. The only thing that was missing is our Internet and laptops! haha.. it's the only time I don't have to think about emails, Facebook or reading news. I do get calls from clients and friend, and I told them I'm in a jungle! Even my sister and her friends didn't know where exactly I was.

Something that trip happen which inspired me is the teamwork. There was so much teamwork with this group. For the first time, I never get mad at things. There was no temper or whatsoever. The environment really helps me to find my peace. It was a great deal for me, and it's all thanks to Rajan and K:Rew for making this happen.

That Mentality: The After Trip

Me and Rajan had an unusual 'incident' on our way back to KL. We eventually had our break in the warung that we parked our cars. Now, there is this one shop with less customer that actually sells quite tasteful food and the other shop, with countless of clients. There rest went there while me and Rajan went to the other one instead. First of all, the customer service was unbelievably terrible. It explains that (no wonder!) people come visit the restaurant. The attitude of the daughter of the shop owner was terribly rude that can actually set someone's thermometer. There was no ‘Selamat datang’ (welcome), all she said with a high tone was 'Nasi?!', 'Nak Air Apa?'.

I still remember when I asked, how come you don't sell cigarettes in here, she told us there was no capital and the cost is too much to bear. That also happens to mobile top-ups. I can't believe such mentality exist, and it's no wonder how these particular typical Malays people never get their business to success because they never dare to take risks, not event to take challenge in order to move forward.

Let's take 'Mamak' restaurant in KL for example. They're probably the best food brand in Malaysia because they learn what the customer think, what the customer wants. You can now experience entertainment such as watching football (yes Manchester here) on a flat panel LCD TV, projections, there's even info-kiosk to slot in advertisements and even the place is supported by WI-FI (Internet access). Their strategy is amazing that should be example by others. But still, it's too much of a hassle to these typical people right? Sigh...

What Malaysians don't really bother and always pin-point at people

All blogs are talking about petrol price. What that does not change is the mentality of Malaysians. We kept on whining about how expensive the price of petrol is when we don't actually study back how awful we spent our money on OTHER things.

Here are some of the things that we need to look at: (problems that will never solve)

Alcohol. They don't mind paying a jug of beer that cost RM60. They wasted at least RM300 per night. They waste their time not only money, but energy and then throw-up. Right? :-)

Go figure to yammseeeenggg!
mabuk drive kereta like samseng,
Press minyak rugi duit langgar bentenggg....
kereta jahanam kena saman baru nak melentennngg..
Mobile phones. I don't understand these people especially parents who bought handphones for their kids. They could afford to buy expensive hand phone even I myself find it very expensive. They spent until thousands of Ringgit just to show off to people about it. Maybe some bought because of functionality, but most of them I met are just about fashion rather functionality.
Mobile top-ups & bills. People can actually spent RM100 just per week! they like to talk long hours and I believe it's not good to 'gayut' for hours. Another one would be the SMS subscription of Astro Horoscope lah, Teman Setia lah, 'Saya Sunyi Kesepian' and whatsoever.
Cigarettes. This is a case where people, especially Malaysian will continue to buy no matter how much the price has hike. A box is cigi is RM8.20. Come on, you are talking about smoking a box a day. Let's do the math, RM8.20 x 5 days = RM41 x 4 weeks is = RM164.
Food. Now Malaysians like to spent money so much on food. It's all about class. Nak makan kat mamak atau warung / restaurant biasa bagi alasan takde standard, takde class. Once in blue moon if you wanna enjoy good food ok, but don't do it everyday! It's a waste to spent RM50 just on food per day. How is that going to help you to save up your money.
Brand is important. I drop by a grocery to get my shower foam. It cost me RM20 bucks for a 1 liter of Shower foam (Dettol). But I choose the soap bar (that comes in 3) that costs RM4. It saves A LOT! Vitagen costs RM1.10 per bottle and we have Berry Crazy yogurt drink for RM0.90 only. And it taste even better.
Parking. Very stingy not to pay RM1-6 ringgit for a parking, but not stingy to get summon tickets from DBKL and Police Traffic with bills up to RM300.
Start comparing bumiputra or non-bumiputra price for housing loans. Even how high or low the rates of a house or an apartment / condo you can get, you STILL will spend money on unnecessary renovation, buy expensive furniture, spent up to RM10,000 for a rock and fish garden, kitchen and others. FYI, one Koi fish is RM500 and above.When they about to sell the house, buyers don't care how much you had spent on renovation, they will still bargain to get less price. It's human nature.

Unless some Malaysian earn very low income. They would suffer from this. I would felt sorry for them. The past two months, I had been recklessly spent too much money on unnecessary things. I myself admit that I had been wasting my money a lot on entertainment. That's why I had take major, major change to keep myself aware of what's going on. I am trying hard to minimize my entertainment :-)

We should be able to spend our money wisely. I know I have to. We should be able to cut on our entertainment, not all but try to keep it less for better, stop wasting time subscribing to unnecessary plans and buying expensive materials or getting installment scheme.

Still Photography

Me, Abby, Syiqin, Ripi & Nagen.

Yes, never missed it on weekly basis. What we did few weeks back after such trouble work in the office, we went for photo walk in Salak South with Syiqin, Ripi, Nagen and Abby.

Salak South Photo walk with friends. This is Nagen.

Old photos, recently edited. My photo walk with my Saladin artist at the bird park.

Manage to take photos in this year Citrawarna Malaysia 2008. Noryn & Sam, good luck in L.A.!

What's New With Creative?

I will be joining together with my team, Digital Malaya Project for an interactive art exhibition for Urbanscapes, located in KLPac, this upcoming 27th of June. Please come! pre-ticket sell at RM25 while RM35 on that day itself. Check out th website fore more info. DMP has an all-new team joining us is Fariz Hanapiah from MotioFixo, Fozy, Nadirah, Ee Venn and Prakash Daniel and official step down from the group is Shieko. We welcome back Perez.

Other than that, I will be working on two local artist's album. You guys would probably figure it out who ;-).

Extract from my novel:

Waktu itu, aku masih berada didalam bebola perut ibundaku. Kedengaran rentak-rentak aneh memberikan suatu tanda tanya. Ibuku berkata didalam hati bahawa aku kini didalam kereta menuju ke Ipoh sambil mendengar lagu Blondie 'Heart of Glass'. Aku mula bertanya, adakah manusia mempunyai hati kaca? adakah begitu mudah memancar sinar, turut pecah berderai sekiranya terusik?

_

Another Typical 'Inspired' TVC from Maxis?

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:02:00 +0000

Sure you remember my article on Virgin ad that look similar to Maxis Hotlink Ad?

I saw few recent Maxis TVC 'What's Your Maxis?' campagins and was amazed with the idea on how they portray such great use of mobile on the go. However, after some research, due to my recent findings; Could Maxis hired CommonCraft or could it be the same agency tried to 'borrow' the idea (again)?

Let's compare local Maxis Facebook ad and Twitter Video demo by CommonCraft. I'm curious to know why is it we like to copy other people's idea instead of creating our own identity? Or maybe it's just that the director of the Maxis recent TVC campaign is a big fan of the talented Lee LeFever.

More Maxis ad similar to LeFever's work:

1. http://youtube.com/watch?v=p9zU6A4LATs
2. http://youtube.com/watch?v=b8ENPHy4H78

Enjoy!
_

Bicara 'Unity'

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:26:00 +0000

Sekian lama tidak menulis jurnal digitalku dalam bahasa Melayu. Ini mengingatkan saya dengan perisitwa ‘menarik’ ketika ditemuramah oleh Sultan Muzaffar untuk Astro Awani pada 24hb April tempohari (kerana saya agak kaku ditemuramah dalam bahasa Melayu) bagi menjayakan projek UNITY yang dikendalikan oleh Pete Teo bersama rakan-rakan (termasuk saya)

Projek yang dinamakan ‘Malaysian Artistes For UNITY’ adalah gabungan artis-artis tempatan termasuk personaliti yang dikenali di Malaysia bagi menyumbangkan bakat mereka didalam lagu dan video ‘Here In My Home’ yang juga diarahkan oleh Yasmin Ahmad dan Ho Yuhang. Lagu dan video 'Here In My Home' boleh dimuat-turun pada masa terdekat, Insya'Allah.

Video Teaser of ‘Here In My Home’

With me are recent 15th AIM winner, Atilia (Best Video) & Suki (Best New Artist)

Saya amat terharu kerana diberi peluang bekerja dengan Yasmin Ahmad, walaupun tidak secara langsung, namum kehadirannya didalam set di KLPac membuatkan saya rasa gembira kerana dapat saksikan beliau ‘in-action’ bersama krew-krew beliau yang amat rajin dan bertungkus-lumus memastikan semua berjalan dengan lancar. Video ‘Here In My Home’ akan diterbitkan di Astro dan di beberapa rangkaian dimasa hadapan, Insya’Allah. Dapatlah saya melihat penampilan satu-dua saat saya bersama rakan-rakan artis lain seperti Izzy, Alex dari SingleTrackMind (sangat rendah diri dan baik orangnya) didalam video tersebut. Turut di set pada hari itu adalah rakan-rakan artis yang biasa saya jumpa seperti Atilia, Ida Nerina, Jaclyn Victor, Suki (sangat comel dan aktif bertutur dalam bahasa Melayu), Kamal Sabran (dari Perak), Awie, Afdlin Shauki, Sultan Muzaffar, Ajami (Blogger/Writer), KLG Squad, Pang (The Annexe), Jerome, Fid Fathir (rakan jurugambar yang turut bersama saya ketika saya di Jakarta March lalu), Reshmonu dan beberapa artis yang lain.

More reviews at: KLue #115 & Yasmin The Story Teller.

Bagi mereka yang mendapat SMS dari Pete Teo mengatakan saya akan turut menyumbangkan rekaan saya untuk kapal terbang AirAsia A320, dukacitanya saya tidak dapat memberikan komitmen saya disebabkan komitmen saya sebagai Pengarah Kreatif untuk projek WCIT & IAP. Saya juga kini sibuk mereka beberapa cover art (album) untuk indie artist tempatan seperti Hunny Madu, Nabil dan sebuah kumpulan metal (underground). Moga-moga dapat terluang masa saya untuk menyiapkan rekaan-rekaan mereka.

Kekurangan 2kg & Hal-hal kerja

Persediaan untuk World Congress on IT (WCIT) 2008 & Persidangan ‘International Advisory Panel’ pada bulan ini menyebabkan saya banyak menghabiskan masa di pejabat sehinggakan kerja dari rumah bagi memastikan kerja-kerja saya dilaksanakan. Sejak akhir-akhir ini, terlalu banyak rekaan yang perlu dibuat. Buat kempen IAP, saya telah membuat arahan seni dari rekaan dari poster ke iklan, buku program, tag krew, pas untuk pengunjung, welcome banners, template powerpoint, online web banners, wallpaper hingga lah ke video dan animasi.

Saya juga kini turut membabitkan diri saya dalam menjayakan sebuah filem arahan rakan saya, Ariff Aris bertajuk 'meniPULATE'. Saya akan bertangungjawab bagi menjayakan kempen web bersama rakan saya Jimmy.

Karya terbaru: 'Ms. Novelity'

Azam saya tahun ini bagi menghasilkan kerja-kerja illustrasi dan rekaan berjalan lancar. Tiap-tiap bulan, ada saja karya-karya baru dihasilkan walaupun saya amat sibuk. Bagi saya, menghasilkan karya adalah suatu kebebasan yang mengimbangkan kreativiti saya dihari saya dalam stress dan tekanan.

Oleh disebabkan masalah kulit yang ketara kerana alergi terhadap makanan laut, akibatnya kulit saya mengalami lebih banyak jerawat disekitar belakang badan. Dengan nasihat doktor, boleh kata setiap minggu saya membuat rawatan scrub badan di beberapa spa di Kuala Lumpur, banyak juga wang dihabiskan untuk membeli ubat selain spa. Sekiranya antara pengunjung mempunyai kaedah tradisional yang boleh diperkenalkan kepada saya, saya sudi mencuba, asalkan ia tidaklah membabitkan ilmu bomoh (ilmu hitam). Disebabkan itu, saya perlu mengamalkan pemakanan sihat seperti sayur-sayuran, maka saya perlu mengelakkan pemakanan daging merah seperti beruang, itik dan dugong dan kurangkan 'white meat' seperti ayam. Diet ini juga menyebabkan saya turun berat badan hampir 2kg, dari 60kg ke 58kg :-( . Terima kasih juga kepada rakan saya Rajan yang telah memberikan beberapa tips penjagaan pemakanan.

Jalan-Jalan Tangkap Gambar

Seperti biasa, setiap bulan saya pergi sekitar Lembah Klang bersama rakan-rakan dari kumpulan KLickr dan baru-baru ini saya bersekempatan untuk menangkap gambar bangunan dan lanskap di Istana Kellie, Perak.

Gambar diambil oleh Hafiz Latif, dan disunting oleh saya.

Adik saya, Hafiz mula menunjukkan bakatnya dalam fotografi. Saya amat terharu melihat darah kreatif mengalir dalam keluarga saya. Ada beberapa gambar beliau diambil dengan menggunakan camera SLR saya dan beliau sendiri telah mengendalikan setting dengan baik untuk mendapatkan pendedahan cahaya yang sesuai.

Saya juga sedang memberikan nafas baru dalam persembahan fotografi saya supaya dilihat lebih kontemporari.

Fotografi Seni Bina: ‘Uniting Obscurity’, sekitar jalan Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur.

Outro

Banyak yang berlaku sejak akhir-akhir ini dan saya bersyukur kerana Tuhan memberikan saya pelbagai peluang terbuka. Saya akan mengemaskini entry ini dari masa ke semasa terutama tentang video 'Here In My Home', Insya’Allah. Terima kasih kerana mengunjungi blog saya.

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DMP, ADAA & More updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Calling Malaysian to submit their photos, illustration, digital art, animation, flash games and others to Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2008!

We only have 21 entries so far from Malaysia, rather disappointed to know that Malaysia truly have a lot of talent. Come on guys! time to get 'creatictify' (creative+electrify)!

Credits: Thank You!

I'm taking this opportunity to express gratitude the most wonderful person who had introduce me to the ADAA committee members, Carole Guevin for your support and appreciation for my masterwork, Digital Malaya Project. You had continuously supported us when no other local portal would do. And because of you, I am able to meet the wonderful and modest Claire Erwin, and to be given a full Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Premium for our (DMP) support to your ADAA prestigious event.

Anyway, DMP will be hosting another great event for next month, so I will release the official news soon, after everything falls in the right place.

Flickr Malaysia 2nd Anniversary

With the latest hoo haah about the Flickr Video new function, I consider it to be beneficial for people like me to also include more organized and compiled photography into multimedia format, rather to squander space and pages to cover a lot of photos.

This video was taken by Matt Marzuki and additional photo by Ripi, both of them are members of KL FLickr group, better known as KLickr. Enjoy my spontaneous freestyle movement.

Personal Updates: The e-Bay experience

I was introduced to ebay by my friend, Yunus back in 2005. But this year, I've gotten real serious about it. This is because things that you can never envision to possess it, can be possible, of course if you have the 'magic card' with you or most definite, the em-oh-enn-eee-why!

I was given the opportunity to fulfill my full-time hobby, which is Transformers collecting. Transformers had been a big influence in my creative life. I still remember back in 2003 when P.Angelina from In-Tech, TheStar did a 2 page spread about my work and Digital Malaya, I mentioned about my early days of creating paper robots from straw boards and manila cards. It was fun.

An article about me, by P.Angelina, 'A Passion for Art', IN-TECH, TheStar.

Now, spending time more than four hours just sitting in front of your monitor just to stay for something is very abnormal for me. Believe me, you won’t be able to control yourself when someone had outbid you for an item you certainly want to purchase. That's why you end up until the last minute of the auction / bidding till you get your possession! Winning the bid had definitely put you in a priceless victory. Mr. Pong, a guy who sold his Transformers Overlord (which is actually 22 years old manufactured from 1987) to me didn't realized how much this item means to me.

Let me explain:

I used to remember back when I had my primary school days, I used to walk with my sister (Aniq) after school, in fact I’d even 'ponteng' (skip classes) just to head down to Warta, Selayang (Wallmart), climbed up to the 3rd floor just to drool myself and fantasizing the Transformers action figures. I know that time, one Transformers cost RM49.90 and seriously, back in the 80's, I don't have much alternative to save up my money since I like to spend on buying those bloody 'Ding Dang', 'Tora' and mystery toys and trade cards wrapped inside a box printed with Gaban or Mask Rider photos. Those days huh..

Video: My Transformers Collection

But today, it feels good just to find myself to be able to collect these item again, even if it cost me RM300-1,000 ringgit just to get an action figure from friends or from ebay. But I don't do this all the time, I know my limits. It only comes when I needed to, and if I found interesting vintage Transformers available on eBay.com

I love watching the Transformers Masterforce series. They are simply the finest! That's why I plan on getting all (if possible) the PowerMaster, Headmaster & Targetmaster series, besides the G1 combiners like Devastator, Computron, Menasor, Predaking, Superion, Defensor, Bruticus, Abominus, Piranacon & Monstructor. I only have the original vintage GI Constructicon, Bonecrusher, and Blast Off of Bruticus, which I got it from my friend Jaesern). I got the Metroplex, from the Base series. However Tomy-Takara will be releasing the Encore version of Metroplex somewhere this September. I already pre-ordered Encore G1 Omega Supreme from Area51 Toys at OneUtama last month which expect to be release in June. Now, it looks like I have to clear another one of my shelves because I will be expecting another five (5) transformers to be in my room anytime soon. :P. A great hobby, and did I tell you, a good investment too? :-) Believe me, I do ‘Transformers Spring Cleaning’ very frequent.

New Artworks & Commercial Work:

It's pleasant to know that one of my creative direction for WCIT campaign are now available (seen) in newspapers and billboards including a large banner in front of our MSC Malaysia headquarters building. Thanks to the company who had helped us and continue to support this campaign. Anyway, regarding my more personal works, there are few more illustrations about to finish. I just love to draw funky illustration of ladies.

Photography > Fine Art > Self-Portrait, Muid Latif

Spending myself getting f*%$up with drained down emotional night after work,I decide to splash myself with white acrylic and get into action.

Artwork > Illustration > 'What do you want me to do?', Muid Latif

Few more to come! ;-) getting creatively productive but also my efficiency is slowing down due to my insomnia. My biological clock is so messed up!

Another thank you to Jay Lim & Vivian Toh for putting such great event for my previous post, Get Moooving Movable Art exhibition. My work got featured in March KLue & SPACE, Vol. 1 magazine. I also found out a nice photo of me dancing during that night was also featured in this month KLue (April) with cover shot by my dear friend Erna Dayanti and Syahrin Aziz.

Photos taken by After4Motion (Jay & Vivian)

I managed to hang out with KLickr friends again on 16th of April in conjunction of donut's day. I had such a great time with my friends and managed to do a sketch of them.

The gengs with donuts and horny conversations :P hehe

I'm giving a talk on Creative Commons organized by Syahrin Aziz this Saturday, 26th of April along with Zainal Abdul Halim & Barzuki from Reuters at KLIUC, Bangi. Something from my end to give more awareness to my crowd about protecting your copyright and your work. More info at Syahrin's Blog.

Heart Broken & Gaining Friendship

Have your heart ever been broken? I have. But when I touch on this topic, it doesn't necessarily have to be love and relationship. Broken heart can also be frustrated for something you, yourself wanted to do so much, but never have the courage to do so, or to find out about someone who’s in trouble and we are not there to offer them a help. On 13th of April, I went to see my old friend, I****m and hang out at his apartment. Before I met him, I went to see Afik (Rafiq), right after a boring typical freelance call by this very awful company which once my friend, Perez, Alvin Seah, Fariz Hanapiah had laised with before as a freelancer. Now most of the Motion / Animation scene here in Malaysia are fully aware of local companies who abuse and taking advantage of freelancers, and believe me, I will be exposing exclusive stories in an article for the upcoming DMP revamp talking about freelance, Intellectual Property, Getting yourself into business and so on.

So, back to ‘old friend story’, I went to hang out at his place and he told me how tough his life is because he and his partner have to struggle to sell their artworks and pitch for projects and even bake cupcakes and cookies just to survive. My visit was worth inspiring and had a slap on my face about reality.

He's a dialog of our conversation:

Old Friend: Muid, mana nak dapat pc murah? Aku tengok kat Low Yatt banyak tapi mahal.
Me: Ic, ada jugak komputer second hand jual.
Old Friend: Dah, tapi still mahal. Minggu lepas aku gi survey, ada komputer second hand harga around RM600 lebih. Aku rasa tu dah cukup. At least untuk siapkan kerja design aku sebab komputer yang aku pakai ni slow sangat.
Me: (I just stared at his computer). Bagus jugak kalau ko boleh dapat harga komputer second hand harga RM600.
Old Friend: Aku baru lepas buat projek design untuk kerajaan, tak banyak, buat brochure design. Esok dapat duit tu, so esok nak pegi beli la komputer tu.
Me: Ic.
Old Friend: Muid, company ko kalau ada projek-projek printing, pass pass la kat kitaorang. kitaorang boleh buat macam-macam, (and explaination goes on and on).
Me: Insya'Allah, boleh. Aku cuba carikan dari company-company luar. Ko tak buat web kan?
Old Friend: Tak, kalau setakat design tu boleh la kot (what he meant was mock), dan yang 'next - back' button tu ko boleh la buatkan.
Me: Oh.. ok.
Old Friend: Aku tengah prepare artwork utk art exhibition. Harap work aku boleh jual. Nanti ko datang ya.
Me: Insya'Allah, ko inform aku awal-awal, sure aku drop by.

We had more conversation and he had also showed me his artworks. His stroke is more of a 'Pollock'. His partner's artwork is much nicer, but both of their artwork can't be afford by me because I remember that next cheque (check), I will need to help a friend to finish his study project, so I didn't promise him that I want to buy his work. But he was so eager of selling his artwork to me. That night, I got so messed up, again, not because of him, but I'm analyzing my own self.

People around me touch me. Their life, their story somehow made me realized how thankful I am. I'm also glad that my dad taught me to donate to Surau / Mosque every time I drop by to pray. Help people in need. By any means, not just donation, but advices, motivation, support. I know there are things you can't avoid, but I know some thing can be fulfill by doing good deeds in this world. I know that I make things equal.

Outro
I felt frustrated with a part of me because I can do so much more. I managed to help people a lot, I see people grow towards their success very little from my motivation and support. And I grow for a better path because of their motivation and people around me who believe in me, who still understand what I stand and fight for. I learn from these few months about myself and I had tone down my ego and my stubborn in order to make myself a better person. It's not an easy step for me, but at least I feel proud. Some people might not change, some will be arrogant and ignorant, believe to hurt people and mute around things that are important to most of them.

There are few who I'm close to, had turn back on me with such hostility (not hospitality). Some will continuously threaten me and disturb my life, friends, family and career because they are evil by born and will never stop until the person fell down and torn apart. Tapi takpa, Tuhan tu Maha Esa, Maha Kaya, Apa yang diaorang buat kat Muid dan keluarga Muid, insya'Allah, takkan kemanalah mereka.

I will never give up to achieve my dreams. What I’ve learned, the next time around, I will analyst a person first before I start giving my courtesy and friendship. There are people out there who just want to be with you because they want to enter your circle of professional network of friends, and some who just want to take advantage by your reputation for personal gain. I would rather friends with people who understand the value of life, value of courtesy and respect, and work hard to earn their own dreams and achievement without depending on privileges or your rich-but-discriminated-and-spoiled family background. At least I don't fake my life, I don't have to fake about what I do or who I am, I'm embracing it and living it for real.Thank you God for giving me the chance to see beyond possibility.

Wassalam

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Another Day in Jazzland

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Interlude

To be able to find my time to write this blog would be refreshing, as I manage to finish of a lot of works on my plate. I got so many things to write about, but for now, I want to share my experience for the last one month. Hope all of you enjoy and inspire.

The Office @ Sinktuary

World Congress of IT (WCIT 2008)

A clean cut design work that will be featured in Jalan Pinang billboard, and finally to work on a widget for event countdown. Yeay indeed!

Penang e-Creative Open Challenge

An inspiring event I should say. I was invited as chief judge to evaluate the entries by local talents and I'm very inspired and flattered during and after the judging process, not to forget to meet new friends. As usual, judging is not easy and it takes a lot of consideration and evaluation to identify interesting subject message from the contestants.

I had hard time, because all of them are good, and to my surprise, they are all young, and we are talking about 14-15 year old school kids who enjoy watching Animax and read manga comics. The work produced is very well produced, and they use WACOM to do this. No joke for that!

Above artwork is made by the grand prize winner. Congrats to Reona Dawn! Her presentation is up to international standard, and she plans to study on Game Design & Programming. All the best girl!

Personal Updates

Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2008

Never in my life would be so lucky to be approached by Adobe Design Achievement Awards committee to be a part of their wonderful campaign. This year, Digital Malaya Project (DMP) had been invited to become Adobe ADAA Media Supporter, and I would like to give my thousand appreciation to Ms Carole Guevin, who is one of the outreach committee member and also the founder of the super-famous Netdiver. Morever, receiving a precious gift from them, the Adobe Design CS3 Premium software will make me more productive after getting this macbook pro baby. I'm planning to buy Office of Mac, Adobe Lightroom & Aperture 2 soon. Of course, we, DMP on our end need to promote this prestigious event to our local schools and colleges. I managed to get sponsors like EcazStudios and others (Jay & Vivian) to help me promote, so I thank those who supported Adobe and DMP.

Talk about DMP, I'm just trying to buy time to revamp back the site. It's been ages that I have not contribute any content accept major promo and updates. After reading 'Destroy The Web 2.0 Look' from Sireh & Cengkeh Terpilih, it made me pretty clear about myself as a designer, NOT to bow down on Web 2.0 look, entirely. We call ourself a designer but we are not if you kept on using design templates provided by wordpress and ready made templates, which includes following other people trends, but not yours? It's definitely a waste, and also a conflict of identity that you had been trying for, and as for me, I ain't going to give it up just because of the trends and so called 'the in-thing' that I myself need to follow, when back in 2001-2002, we already have explore the usage of JavaScript, Applets and DHTML. With the Web 2.0 look, or those ready-made template by other designer will will only weaken us as a designer. You can do everything according to the trend, but don't let all of your work be at one style. These days, Flash website gets more control because of FLEX and it's seamless interactivity. Thanks to Syed for bringing this great feature in his website. To us who have the pride of calling ourselves designers, do your design according to your own style and identity, but technically improve on back-end, whether integrating with a good CMS or a funkilicios ActionScript for your works.

Weekend Breakaway

Last weekend (29-30 March) had been another blast as I spent my time with my fellow Saladin artists such as Sandra, Remy, Hanie & Immo to go out for a sketch-session at the National Birdpark in Kuala Lumpur. I got so caught up with 'Toco Toucan' and Malabar Pied Hornbill species. Managed to get some sketches done, though I have to rush for Yahoo! Malaysia Flickr 2nd Anniversary Party at Pelita Hati Gallery, with another special freestyle dance performance by me :P

Photography: Going on Travel Photography, most likely.

Meantime, my photo work of Niah Great Caves has been shortlisted in the National Geographic 'Daily Dozen' for April 1, 2008. A big thanks to k.a.b.i.r, my KLickr pal who had informed me.

Digital Malaya @ PeKOMIK Mini Convention

I was invited by Azhar, chief of Malaysian Comic Association (PEKOMIK) to give a talk at the PeKOMIK Mini Convention last weekend, 6th of April. I was so honoured to be presenting my work with the attendance of fellow artists including the legendary Ujang. His talk was awesome, inspiring and hilarious.

RECAP: Get Mooovable Moving Art Exhibition

This show went with a great success, follow by strong support by my friends, mostly from Flickr Malaysia. Our exhibition was also featured in two magazine, one is Space, volume 1: 2008 and March's KLuE with name mentioned and artwork displayed. It was also one of my very rare event, because I had performed two dance session. I pay my greateast respect to two special individual, Jay Lim & Vivian Toh for putting up such a successful event and to be able to handle and coordinate very smooth. You guys are in my heart.

Muid & Friends

Muid's performance.

Artwork Updates: 3 fresh from the Oven

I managed to do some illustration on my flight to Penang, so this illustration was created 27 feet tall. Cherry Bomb! (Joan Jet)

'If Dreams Are Miracle', by Muid Latif

'Exploration: In Her Mind', By Muid Latif

I'm also digging up my old illustration and managed to rework on some including my current work-in-progress for the Hijau exhibition this June.

'The Punishment', by Muid Latif

W.I.P, 'Hizhou', for HIJAU Exhibition, this June 2008.

The Trip: Java Jazz

Back in 1994, when TV3 introduce us to Benson & Hedges: 'Golden Dreams', I used to remember that I wrote a letter to them about my golden dream to meet someone that I adore, someone that I constantly listen to back when I was wearing that green pale pants and white school uniform, imagining that someday I would meet Kenneth Edmonds, probably known as Babyface. His music had pretty much influence my life, my creativity and my interest for r&b and soul music. So when my sister bugs me about Jakarta's Java Jazz Festival, I had a flat chance to go there because of my workload, but thanks to my dear boss, I was able to go there! To know Incognito, D'Sound and Park Drive will be performing in that prestigious event, I felt there's no reason I should not waste my weekend by not going there. So later we tag along with our friends like Oya, Halimi Saidi, Atilia, our dearest local singer, and her konco-konco, Fizar Harun, Jerry, Fid Fathir (he's a cool dude!), David, Eric Li, Donna, Teejay, Comel, Roslan Wikinson (hope I spell the name right), and our dearest soul-lady, Salamiah Hassan and the rest.

A week before, my sister asked me if I would like to buy the special ticket to watch Bobby Cadwell and Babyface, but I rather spear my money for shopping, because I'm up for that. Going to Jakarta is like heading back to your second home, because I got lot's of memories and friends there. I know it's such a waste not to see Babyface performs, but on Sunday the 9th itself, set the most historical date of my life. This is how the story goes;

In front of Aquarius Record Store.

After shopping tons of CD at Aquarius in Pondok Indah, I kept on whining to Abby to go to EX Mall nearby Sarinah Mall (I think so!) because I want to get that delicious Japanese food that I ate early last year when I attended the Massive Offline conference. But instead, Abby told me to head back to Jakarta Convention Centre so we can arrive early to the show.

So we went there. We took the tunnel from The Sultan Hotel. There's a moment when we about to pass the lobby and I said to myself, 'If only I can see babyface..', and a few second, I saw a tall American-African came out of the lift alone. I immediately shout lightly to Abby and I said, 'Sh!t, that's Kenneth, Babyface!'. I lost all my sense and run towards him and greeted him 'Kenneth'. To my surprise, there's not even one assistant was near him. I ask him if we could take a photo of us together with him and I know that time, he was rushing for his show. He said 'yeah, sure'. It's just out of the world to know that suddenly I have a chance to meet him. I shake my hands and I told him thanks and said it's an honour to meet him. Right after we took the photos with him, three of his assistant start to chase him and ask him to leave for the show. I thank to Abby, and God for making that moment a day to remember.

So, this is for the cool in me, and Babyface!

The 3 days event is a blast, with a lot of fun and laughter. Finally I managed to get my hands of the famous Krispy Kreme, the most delicious donut. I also bump into my friends, and they are Azlan Abu Hassan @ Soulguy, and Omar K! Me and Azlan goes way back and we have been chatting since 2002 but never meet him in person, but Java Jazz made a great meeting point for us. Thanks Azlan, for recognizing me and to hang out with us. It was also a pleasure to meet Omar K, one of Malaysia latest new fresh producers who made great composition.

Parkdrive, as smooth as jamiroquai+incognito.

It was a pleasure to be able to stand in front of them and enjoyed their performance and meet them in person. Thanks to our brother lead guitar of Atilia's genious band, David, who's also a natural-born photographer, for hooking us up with the Park Drive's musician, Rayendra (Ray).

Transform: Masterforce!

More collection, more orders including the cool G1 Encore Omega Supreme. I managed to get Skylynx (but ain't really likin' it) and managed to get two precious Masterforce series, the Powermaster Lightfoot and Powermaster Dreadwing.

Outro: Kembara Hati

Being grateful and thankful to God, for giving such high spirit and awakening. Friends comes and goes, but to some friends, you made such a wonderful journey for me. Thanks again for your kind support, and thanks for accepting me for who I am, and for the worst of me.

I recently had a great smoking-break with a colleague of mine and we had discuss about relationship. I conclude his input that inspired me.

I will no longer push everyone to be in my shoe because they can't be as I am. I have to learn to accept that very small part of a person character, regards to the limitation they have. I understand some people can be comfortable within their box, within their own comfort zone and I will not push them to go as what I am. Some people are afraid to share their past experiences because they afraid of loosing, and I may no longer doubt or question them. Let them know me, and I let myself learn just little, as long as they are happy.

I revisited my mistakes and my failure once again, and in time and space, I will find my way again.

Up Against The Wind - Lori Perry

Day after Day seems like I push against the clouds
They just keep blocking out the sun
It seems since I was born
I've wakened every blessed morning
Down on my luck and up against the wind
Don't you stop, don't you run, don't you cry
You'll do fine, you'll be good, you'll get by

Night after night seems like I rage against the moon
But it don't ever light the dark I curse the falling rain
But it won't stop for my complaining
Down on my luck and up against the wind

Don't you stop, don't you run, don't you cry
You'll do fine, you'll be good, you'll get by

Swimming against the tide and striking the indifferent air
I'm swinging with empty hands
Driving that empty dream

Day after Day I fend myself against heat
But it don't ever cool the breeze
Don't you stop, don't you run, don't you cry
You'll do fine, you'll be good, you'll get by

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It's time to blow that candle, and sit in a silent darkness, but not as a lone moth, but a free hummingbird, ready to sing beautifully.

Sedar

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:15:00 +0000

- Oleh Muid Latif

Bermain tanglong di Sungai Ara,
Syahdunya 'Bulan' bersinar mekar,
Bijak 'Mata' kini belayar di maya lara,
kerna disitu cendekiawan bergerak lebar.

Dahulunya warna dijahit harmoni,
kini dikoyak iri hati sesama diri,
Dahulunya satu arah kini kian bercabang,
sudah mula retak bebas 'melarang'.

Muhibah runtuh 'suara' pudar,
kerna korupsi satu malaya menyerah,
Ceritera cinta uniti kini kabur,
hakikatnya bimbingan luntur menjadi parah.

4:00 a.m.

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Interview Session: The Wonder Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:37:00 +0000

What’s New With You?

I’m working on an upcoming exhibition and also will be doing a 4 minute freestyle performance on the 2nd March 2008. Other than that, I’m assisting the company I’m working with in the Brand and Communication to enrich creative campaigns for World Congress Information Technology (WCIT 2008) and International Advisory Panel (IAP2008) alongside with great agencies and partners. Meantime, I’m polishing my photography skills and planning a trip to Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta to celebrate my birthday with my sister, Abby, our dear friends like Atilia, Oya, Halimi, Fizar, Jerry and my partner. I might be bumping into my Indonesian friends from the design field and keeping my hope cross to meet some great producers and notable international singers over there like Andi Rianto, Harvey Malaihollo, Glenn, Incognito, James Ingram and Kenneth Edmonds (Babyface). It’s going to be a worth birthday gift ;)

'Hope', a new artwork by Muid Latif for the Get Moooving Movable Art Exhibition, 2nd March 2008.

We rarely see you in art exhibition these days. Why?

Erny Dyanty and Muid Latif, at the recent 'New Photography from Southeast Asia Exhibition' @ Valentine Willie Fine Art, Bangsar, 13th of February 2008.

I choose not to. I just felt it’s time to give chances to the new generation of designers and artists to participate in art events and exhibition, and use that platform as an opportunity to acknowledge themselves. I had experience the best show and I believe it’s not fair that you take all. I don’t want be labeled as a greedy artist or designer. It is good to just appear in several occasions and events. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a workaholic person. I’m busy spending hours writing proposals, attending meetings and appointments. In fact, I really like to spend more time with my friends and family these days traveling to places, take photographs and get in touch of the nature. I don’t to stuck in the office at the age of 30 years old chasing dateline and miss all the fun in the world, it’s just too pathetic. Having said that, it doesn’t mean I’m not active. I am creative and I never miss my weekly sketches and illustration. Once an artist, always an artist!

Do you think you are famous?

I’m not famous. I, however, am well-known and I am well-linked for sure! I can be this one wild chap and at the same time, I am a role model to a lot of people. I keep myself moderate however I never miss doing my occasional social networking to gain more contacts. I am surrounded with nice people who appreciate my works, and know my capability as a new media specialist, not just know how to talk or write but I can say yes even to the impossible things. I am reliable to almost everyone around me. It’s good to know that some used me, because I know its better feel this way than feeling nothing at all. I am happy to know some people out there acknowledge me especially to help them grow and felt a need to compete with me. Some had bypassed me with good potential, and I felt proud to see where they are now. And you know what? When I see them, they smiled at me. I felt flattered.

When we see your portfolio, is it officially a commission work or ‘syok sendiri’?

I classified my work in two categories, one is for commercial, and one is personal work (non-commissioned). The works I did even had been published and launched even by our local Prime Minister, our beloved Yang Di-Pertuanku Sultan (Daulat Tuanku) to great notable clients. I never felt proud seeing our own Sultan touches your own product and effort for the launch. KTM Commuter stills hang my artwork in one of their train even if they suppose to take the artwork off more than a year ago. Most people like my work, and most of my work sells. I don’t need Bauhaus or Award-Winning Art Direction to get recognize. As long as my work pays the bills, everyone is satisfied with my contribution, we both live in peace, that’s all that matters. There’s few good commission work that made me earn good money, as well to help others. The best part was to do it professionally, even paid for Government Service Tax ;-). So go figure if it’s a ‘syok sendiri’ (vanity) or not.

What do you think of designers with attitude?

Attitude is for divas, divos and prima donna’s. I met a friend of mine and use to be my early client, Ferhad. We both had a quick chat about a designer with full of attitude and doesn’t perform well in a professional business ethics. A person full of attitude means a person who is hard to work with. As for me, a small side of me is about being professional or not. I strongly believe we do need to be rigid at some point and situation because you want things to fall in places. I don't like to mistreat people because of my status or to which agency I work with; instead, I would clarify and identify what I want or my stakeholder wants, and what I can do to smooth things up for them. When I work, I don’t just design. I use a lot of process of work to identify the right project management, from documentations, to time lines, site-maps, architecture information (AI), brand building and other important matters. It's always a plus if you have constant follow-up so you won't run away from your timeline.

What would a person would pissed of with you or if they claim you are a guy with the big 'A'?

If a person pissed of with me, that's because I turn down their offer to work on a specific project or for their company, some of the factor why I refuse to take jobs offer these days is because:

First and foremost, I'm engaged as a consultant to a very high profile organization. So therefore, I am occupied most of my time with the task that had given to me.
I love what I’m doing now. I also have other commitment to do, and I still have to run and manage Digital Malaya Project (DMP). Since DMP had become an official Media Supporter to Adobe Design Achievement Award 2008, I opt to get more serious. These are the only two that I should be focusing on. One is career, and one more is my passion. Others I may find it an opportunity, but I believe the opportunity I’m seeing now is with the company as a consultant, and my pet project, the DMP. Its also shows I'm loyal and I focus on what I like best.
They (clients) wanted me to build an interactive website for the cost of RM2000 and they want everything, and this means EVERYTHING. Recently, a person is comparing other designers who can produce a particular website by charging the amount of USD$400. This is why some freelancers are killing the market. We are talking about putting down an industrial standard of doing a professional business. Unless you are a pakcik from an inner state asking to help with design banner and stuff for promotions and their small business, I would consider and do on charity basis. I even take barter trading if I work with the right person.
i.e: 'Hey Muid, can you build me a website? I'll help you out with the magazine design layout for your MekarMara", or "You design this e-newsletter, and I'll buy you lunch at Italianies'. Now that is nice kan? :)
I just can’t work with people who want things to be at a very, very low budget at the same time want full quality in everything. Things like this need justice. And I strike for one!
They disrespect the creative people and disregard creative process. If they want to hire us, why there’s so many process and obstacles (namely on decision making and about being 'kiasu')? I prefer to work with people who knows what I'm capable of and have faith in what I do and bring the teamwork spirit on the table.
In another case, If a student approaches me, I give them hard time; this is because I want them to communicate properly. It irritates me to see; ‘hey bro, aku nak interview hang untuk thesis aku boleh? Call me.” If a proper student communicates well, I will help throughout. Some of them scores A+ and Dean’s list.
I'm a bit pushy when it comes to payment, because I delivered most of the requests according to dateline. Sometimes, some clients find me irritating, because I will call and call the finance's office until the payment is made and cleared. Wouldn't harm anyone right?

So yeah, it’s about being professional (not being diva/divo) and fully understands what I want or what they want in order to produce a seamless and great teamwork on a project.

Do you think Art Director is such a big deal for designers?

Well, at early stage. I thought so. Being an art director is like from being an executive, to senior executive and to a manager. Then I got involved. I was one of them. But I felt nothing if I work my own ways because to become an art director, you have to create a great mutual relation with your other team mates. It’s all about teamwork. I know at a time I have to work so hard, not only to provide creative mocks and concepts, but to come up with researches, a great proposal, mood board, project paper, creative brief, timeline, site maps, AI, you name it.

Some art directors make their ways by talking bullshit and trying their best to impress themselves how they can present stuff creatively, while others can’t even draw a great figure or can’t even create a great 3D model. Some can’t even take photograph nicely. I know one art director who are good in writing and rationalize things, but to such surprise, insult artists when he himself called the 'Art' Director. So, should we separate and divide things to put in such status of class?

I do, however, met some super talented, yet humble Art Directors, but you can rarely find 'em these days. Just ask yourself, if you’re good, why would you still try hard to impress people? The artwork or the products you create speak for itself. Not words or what stated in your 10 pages proposal. I mean it's a plus if you also good at writing and documenting things. But seriously, execution proves how well you are, how efficient you are. Don't dare to even call yourself a designer if you don't produce numerous of work a day, don't dare to call yourself an artist if you don't own a sketchbook and never sketch a single work.

It's never a big deal becoming an art director. It's just a title. Most important is your work speak who you are. If you're hardworking and a smart person, people will acknowledge your credibility instantly!

Do you ever felt defensive when there's something not right?

There’s a different between defensive and justifying yourself. Defensive means you jump out (freaked out) when people give you a critics (which most of young Malay designers do these days, no pun intended!). Justifying is to rationalize what you do, and to let others understand your process of work, so they know it’s a serious deal about what you do. I can be both, but most of the time I only justify if I found false facts about me or my work. I like when people came up to me and talk about what I should do or what I should not do. I felt very human if someone identify my weakness and mistakes, but I dislike to be mistreated or to put down my pride, which in my experience, Off topic, I'm talking about the two art director from my previous company who had highly insulted me. I used to look at them 10 feet high. Now, nothing.

Have you fail before?

Yes. Many, many time. In fact, 2005 was the year I fell and broke apart. It was a tough year for me. I lost my pride and friends around me, I lost my sense and I lost my motivation. Those who stand next to me still with me, and those who don’t left me. I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, but I never look back. But doesn’t mean I didn’t look back at all. I recovered slowly but surely. I revisit my pass and my mistake, in order for some chance for me to improve my weaknesses. God is great indeed, so there will be more obstacles, and it’s up to me to fight and be strong. I am prepared for it because I have a lot of rivals around me. So, it keeps me on an alert. I did repeatedly inform some people (even in my lectures or creative workshops) that I got kicked out from my college and I regain my pride by working extra hard, of course, with a lot of support and help from my family and friends. When you fail, you learn more to improve yourself. I'm glad to go through the hardest days to get me where I am today. (Alhamdulillah)

What does it feel to be you?

Constantly felt grateful and thankful. When I looked up the sky, it reminds me how small I am and how much I want to work to earn not just for living, but most important, to make my parents happy, and that I can repay for that they had done to shape myself to where I am today. And I got friends around me, mentors, and great people. I’m getting older and what I hope is to get more friends who can send al-Fatiha when I’m not in this world. Not friends who knows how to party but less contribution to their akidah. I'm not saying that I'm a religious person, but I always keep my head to the sky.

I want people to know that I had given my contribution, my experience and my knowledge without doubt and territory, most important is sincere. I’m proud that I was able to help young children to learn the beauty of arts, and it was God who had made me realize how beautiful to be able to help people. My talent came from above, and I am so grateful I am able to use his given talent, efficiently and wisely. (Alhamdulillah).

I heard of a song ‘2x5’ by Ahli Fiqir (Singaporean Hip-hop group) and what they said is true. Qoute ‘Ada orang tak suka menderma, ada orang suka derma tapi nak pembalasan’ (meaning some do charity but they wanted something in return, or something like that). It made me realize that I must never to spear a hope to get something in return. I let go a lot of things in 2007. And I hope this year, I can achieve more positive outcome. I mean there will always be my social activities and responsibilities, but doing something good and contributing more towards the community is something I choose to do. What about you?

_

Creative Exploration, Transformers and Life Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:15:00 +0000

Neu Work Updates

It’s been a very incredible month for me. I would like to wrap-up my January with amazing stuff in my latest entry. I would like to thank everyone who had been so helpful and supportive. My prop goes to friends of Flickr group ‘KLickrs’, Facebook and in real life who I couldn’t done it without your best advices and warm greetings.

Featured Interview this year!

I had the opportunity to be featured in two great art & design portal which is NOISE from Australia and After5Motion, a design portal run by my friend Vivian. Check out interview one; NOISE Artist Interview and interview two; After5Motion I was also invited to several upcoming exhibitions.

I will be participating in ‘GET MOOOVING MOVABLE ART 2008’, 2nd March, 2008 at Palate Palette, Kuala Lumpur. I was also request from Mr. Jay Lim to do a dance performance for that night, so those who’s curious to know how I move my freestyle dance, can come to our event!

A.R.T 2008, Shah Alam
My first serious involvement with the Sifoo Design Community together with ‘Layar Tanchap’ and ‘Click-A-Child’ (charity). I will announce the update for this event soon, meantime I’m coordinating few stuff in terms of design with the team headed by Imran Ijabar. I hope I am able to commit this task. I really want to help them as much as possible.

Photography & Creative Collaboration

Besides my great photo shooting activities with my Flickr KLickr group, I managed to create two (2) artwork during Thaipusam. Both of my digital work is a collaboration between notable photographers like Johan Sopie (which I had published earlier in my blog), K:REW, Syahrin Aziz. I would like to complete this into 7 images and later I will start with collective collaboration with fellow local and international designers. This is the year I need to start back my creative works after last year lest effort in contributing towards the scene.

I was invited by a very, very good friend of mine, K:REW at his studio to work on his new year team. He mentioned; “Oh what a treat it is to be working with Muid. Not only is he mad, he's brilliantly mad. I'm such a fan of his work and what he stands for. We need more people like him. Period”. Truly honored and appreciate for such valuable testimonial from him. Feel free to check out his great shot of me in his set, HeadSpace. So much to thanks K, I’m speechless!

By the way, I just submitted a photo entry to JPG magazine and would like to kindly ask you guys to vote for my photos to be published for the upcoming issue. Your vote counts!

Vote here: http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/437852

Life Updates

I would like to feature my latest entry of my fresh new poetry of 2008 for the upcoming Moetry: Volume One (Illustrated PDF book).

Berarak Bersama
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

Disetiap sudut masa dan ruang kau mendamaikanku,
Gemilang jiwaku dibawa persona dirimu,
Membangkitkan semangat daya dan juang,
Untuk terus aku maju langkah ke alam semesta.

Kaulah aturan sumberku,
Yang memberi seribu kekuatan merentasi aral,
Agar kau dan aku terus berarak mekar,
Selagi masa berada di ruangan bima sakti.

Rescue Me
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

From this crowded surroundings I seek you,
I saw you stood still but could not reach you.
I came to know my devastating truth so I broke down.

Went out of my mind that I could no longer breathe,
The hope that I found before was fading away,
Then people became fear of me and shred my door.

I became a cold sculpture surrounded by deep water,
an art piece nice to set eyes on but fear to touch,
my heart was wrecked without soul.

All of a sudden someone tosses me a penny,
With a wish I reminisce beautiful years I once had,
I felt affectionate but only for a moment.

Will someone rescue me from such devastation?
Will a fairy grand me my wish to be able to live again?
Will I ever be free again?

Am I A Substance?
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

Lately I felt in fear and apprehension,
As the bitter breeze batters me,
A part of me begin to fall.

A reckless heart wails with agony,
For what this heart yet feel is nonentity,
My endurance weakens and became blurry.

Absurd it may sound but I’m blunt,
Through an ambiguous mind,
Integrity begins to wonder.

The reality seems to be unbalance,
For a soul condense faraway distance.
Set in a parallel creating solitary.

Some Nobility

I met Azmil Mustapha, one of Malaysia notable actor who played Ali Setan back in the 80’s and been seeing him around in early 2001 when I did my practical in RTM. He came to MDeC last week, Friday the 25th to share his experience and journey of his migration to Syria. Salahudin, one of great Muslim warrior was buried in Syria. In his knowledge sharing session, there’s such amazing story that I heard from him including how different the Muslim practice their religion compared to Malaysian Muslim. From his experience, ours are very conservative and selective. We always have to define within different (4) Mazhab (School of thoughts), even perform their solat according to different coordinates. He told us when one of the Imam from Masjid Al-Haram to our national mosque, many things happened. In Syria, Muslim live in peace with Christians and the Muslim is not conservative as the Malaysian Muslim. Over there, everything heart for Allah and doesn’t have to be particular about which group you are from. Other Mazhab can get along with one another and respect each other.

Ours are slightly different. I was surprised to find out how complex the Malaysian Muslims practice their ways. Somehow I do find it is very discriminating to the same kind. No wonder they cannot get a long with each other. Well, to prove further, I remember having a solat in TTDI Mosque, there is this one guy sitting next to me with such great reciting and later perform solat. And you know what happen? After his ‘doa’, he just ‘blastoff out’ of the mosque without shaking hands with people next to him which include me and a pakcik next to him. Some of the Muslim in this country is not strong in terms of living harmony as we see, all are corrupted with such prejudice mind, because we all answer the same ‘amin’ after the Imam, but we never turn to our next person to give greetings or not even to smile. It’s pathetic. It’s like, "oh, I only solat for Allah, but to h**l with everyone around me”.

Update (25/2): Thanks to Mr. Aziph Mustapha for dropping by. I would like to share his input on my recent blog:

1. You have a right to your opinion, but to assume what a brother Muslim is thinking in his heart may be too much. He may have a myriad of different reasons for rushing out of the Mosque, and we must respect his right and keep good faith or think positive thoughts (husnu-zon) about what others are doing. Assume the best, not the worst of him.

2. Though greeting the person to the left and to the right of us after prayer is widely practised here, it did not come from authentic sunnah of the Prophet SAW. The authentic sunnah is to greet one another when first meeting, not at the end of the prayer. Since I am not a scholar, allow me to quote one:

a. "We do not know of a single Companion or Righteous Salaf, may Allaah be pleased with them all, that they used to shake hands with those on their left and right and give the tidings of the prayer being accepted after completing the prayer. If any one of them would have done this then it would have reached us, even it be via a weak isnaad and the People of Knowledge would have quoted it those who delved into every ocean and explored their deepest depths and derived from them many rules and regulations and did not neglect a single aspect of the Sunnah." ['Tamaam al-Kalaam fee Bid`iyyah al-Musaafaha ba`d as-Salaam' [pp. 24-25] and 'al-Masjid fee al-Islaam' [pg. 225]. - from Allahuakhbar.in

Thanks for allowing me to understand more about sunnah in greeting. This surely clarify my perception on what I had mentioned earlier. For more information on Syria, visit Wikipedia here.

Happy Birthday Mama Yatie!

We celebrated mum’s 51th birthday yesterday in Sri Petaling Driving Range Seafood Restaurant. Kak Yong (my eldest sister) brought Häagen-Dazs® Ice-cream Cake Together with a very nice present. We always go there for casual dinner due to their famous and amazing Butter Prawn. The best so far in any Chinese Restaurant.

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Waiting for more orders..

Check out our video:

Our family dinner / celebration video taken from my Samsung Blackjack (Much gracias Av).

Transformers Fever

Escaping from all my work stress and to fulfill my satisfaction of my childhood days, I finally regain my consciousness to rebuild back the collection I have. I had recently added few Auto-bots in the family including Grimlock, Jetfire, Rachet and both version of Jazz from the Transformers Movie including a pirated but amazing Transformers Powermaster Double Dealer (which I bought for RM19.90 in Selayang Mall) and the latest G1 Rachet and Ironhide (thanks to Wilson for selling this in eBay!), plus Metroplex! Yeay!

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A Neu Creative 2008: Reinvent & Rebuilt

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:13:00 +0000

" Becoming an art director does not require years of art director school, even if one existed. It does however, demand a smattering of many competencies derived from varied educational and work experiences. Certain art directors are better at photography or illustration, while others are more adept with motion or three-dimensional space (3D), but overall, to be a good art director one must know how to delegate - who to call for best work to achieve the final product, which is ultimately the result of C O L L A B O R A T I O N "

- Stever Heller, The Education of Art Director, Allworth Press Publishing.

Interlude: 2008, Expression of A Self-Taught Designer

I exist to build upon and rework on things that inspire me. Most important is to share what I had discovered and collaborate with creative people around me; so I can achieve various final products. I want to restore what is left of our ancestors and what truly unique which most people have neglected and thought our roots was a redundant argument. I know at this moment, at this point, after 28 years, I do achieve something bigger than receiving awards, I don’t need to go to Yale to tell people what a person think, but most important is to let others understand what they can adapt, not by a fixed rationale that can be followed in books. It's also to let both of you and I understand and appreciate the talent that God has given us and channel to various products for either living and other social contributions. This is not only by words, but practically I do execute it and I'm able to understand WITHOUT following what people like rather to create their own style and identity.

When I talk about being a designer, I would not prefer to say that I am a mainstream designer, I want to be different. I want to be called as a 'neo-soul' designer. And that is why today I am known for my identity. Most people tried to deny what I do due to the level of envious (constantly bitchin') because I am capable of scoring each field well, not to sound very swaggering but rather fulfilled, positive and certain of my capability as a human, and this talent, came from Above (Praise God!). Every composition of my designs or artworks is written like music. It's how you arrange the bass, percussion, keyboard, piano, guitar and the melody.

Fascinating Nusantara

For all that I know, and ensure, I want to remain on carrying the oriental elements in my artwork because it's simply beauty and unique that not all Malaysian or any new young artists or designer do. I am very much serious about what I stand for, and I try to go as deep as possible, not only to study on Malay Wood Carving or Batik, but to go back to the history of Majapahit, back in the 14th Century, and the rest of the history of South East Asia. I managed to buy a lot of books covering from arts and history, and due to my several meet-up with Dr. Zubin, I gain more knowledge and interest. That's why I want to visit Angkor Watt in early 2008. Few months back when I was heavily involve on the Interactive Kiosk development for MOSTI Angkasawan Programme, I manage to study about Seaweed. To my surprise, my mind had been broaden even more, and how excited I am to see my organic creation is similar to the studies of seaweed, such as the Chadophora, Dumontia Contorta, Turner and much more.

The debate is very simple, (in Bahasa Melayu): "bila bangsa lain mula bercerita tentang kepakaran mereka menyelidik mengenai asal usul nenek moyang kita, mulalah kita yang Melayu panas satu badan, walhal punca utamanya datang dari kita, kerana kita mengendahkan dan memperkecilkan keindahan budaya kita. Orang luar sibuk terkial-kial menyelidik tentang seni dan budaya kita, bahkan kita teragung-agung dan menjilat budaya orang lain (European whatsoever). Apakah persoalannya bila kita mengikut aliran Bahaus, kita diiktiraf sebagai pereka yang ada kelas? Takkan ke mana jua. Jadi, fikir-fikirkan lah, dan sila beringat-ingat tentang kekayaan budaya kita yang ada, yang terunggul unik". Learn it well. Even a good mentor of mine, Mr. Joshua Davis reminded us how beautiful and rich our culture is.

What is Srivijaya?

Srivijaya, Sriwijaya, Shri Bhoja, Sri Boja or Shri Vijaya (200s-1300s) was an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. Records of its beginning are scarce while estimations range from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, but the earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6 months; the Kedukan Bukit Inscription is dated 683.The kingdom ceased to exist between 1200 and 1300 due to various factors, including the expansion of Majapahit.In Sanskrit, sri means "shining" or "radiant" and vijaya means "victory" or "excellence".

"Malays praticed Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century."
The Malay Archipelago is a vast archipelago located between mainland Southeastern Asia (Indochina) and Australia. Straddling the Indian and Pacific Oceans, this group of some 20,000 islands, the world's largest archipelago by area, constitutes the territories of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, and most of Papua New Guinea. (Info taken from Wikipedia)

Life Updates

Yesterday, I went for dinner at TheCurve after I met my doctor (again, my digestion disorder problem due to heavy stress lately). So, I went to Pet Safari in Ikano later, and to found out that they have 'Sugar Glider' for sale. Now, I have a big obsession on these cute-ys after watching 'Samurai Champloo' which reminds me of the cute Momo in the anime's character and right after seeing them for the first time in a pet shop in Malacca city when I was with Martin Gomez and my friend Roul. I immediately told them I would like to book two of them, because they are so adorable. Seeing them makes me so happy and joyful so I decide to buy them in pairs. Since I didn't have cash with me, I told the supervisor that I will be picking them tomorrow evening. So on 1st of December, right after my first ever, 13 year of high school reunion in Lemon Cafe at Mines Shopping Centre, I went straight to Ikano. I even met my colleagues (of MDeC) at Starbucks and drop by a camera shop to get my 50mm (f1.8) lens for my Canon. Then I went straight to Pet World. And there, both of them sleeping in the food container (orang melayu kata tapuwear kecik).

Introducing Meeko and the late, Bambee. Both are two (3) months old, originally to know that they came from Australia and Papa New Guinea. Sugar Glider (Glider Possum) lives up to 10 years (I heard 15 years max) and can grow up to 7-9 inches long (ala, cam besar squirrel). Americans call 'em Flying Squirrel. They eat apple, strawberries and other fruits but they can also eat small insects (but I ain't put any of that in the cage). Last few days, we entertained Meeko at the living room with my aunt and my grandma (Opah). Opah was so happy to see the sugar glider. Meeko is hyperactive at night, even jump on my face when I carried him around! But unfortunate accident, Bambee (female) passed away on the 17th of December. I don't want to discuss further but I felt the lost and now leaving Meeko alone. But I’m getting a new bigger cage and few more (if my budget permits lah..).

View this video (Me & Meeko)

Equipped and Ready to Rock and Roll!

With the new HP Pavillion desktop PC with 320 GB (truly awesome!), Apple 15.4" Macbook Pro, Sony HDE-SR5E handy cam and few new lens for my Canon SLR, 2008 will be more productive year for me to gain back my creative experiments. I already discussed with few notable photographers like Syahrin Aziz, Kieren Kuek for special collaboration

Officially an Art Collector

On the 7th of December, I went to Norhaslinda Nordin’s art exhibition in Kebun Mimpi, Bangsar with Dr. Zubin. I remember 2 years back, I had my work exhibited together with Linda at Gema Rimba, Bukit Tuanku. I had an eye for Linda’s artwork because her stroke are very sweet and serene. Her composition of work is cool and the colors are just nice (for me) and I believe some of Linda’s artwork are inspired by my guru, Jailani Abu Hassan. Jai taught me a lot in exploring composition and colors. It’s because of his teaching had make me well verse in color composition, using harmonic colors. Linda is actually a very junior of mine from UiTM, and she had climbed very rapid after winning few competitions.

Well, Linda had made me an art collector that night (malas nak title art buyer), because I got so impressed with her work that I even bought two of her artwork. I will buy more artwork of her in the coming future, and I’m looking forward to buy artworks of my favorite, favorite artist, Mohammad Noor Mahmud. By far, he’s the most high profile and identical artist in Malaysia to carry the batik motive in his paintings. (gila sawan tengok artwork Mohd Noor!).

Talk about UiTM juniors, I would like to talk about two UiTM juniors from the Graphic Department. Now, picture above is me with two UiTM students, Hazlynda & Firdaus. They had invited me over for an interview for their project paper, and that project paper was the case study of ‘Muid Latif’. I was truly flattered with both of them, to be able to bare their patience with my busy schedule. Nevertheless, I’m excited to know that few weeks ago both of them emailed me and informed that they had scored A+ for the project, and Hazlynda was nominated for Dean’s list. So congrats to both of them!

Last minute swiping sessions

I couldn't resist myself to get the G1 Transformers Ultra Magnus right in front of my eyes after I bought Nightwatch Optimus Prime three (3) days ago. I went to the shop called Area 51 Toys same level as MacAsia in One Utama. Before that, on my way to the shop, I drop by to Tower Records to check if my girl's CD, Jill Scott: Volume III is re-stock, since it's hard to find one! Even a friend of mine's CD, Imran Ajmain is impossible to find one on the rack. So as I was flippin' on the CD, I found a very very interesting cover art. It look so Indonesian-band because they are more identical, especially indie ones. So I bought the album and soon to find out the illustrator is none other than Darbotz!

Darbotz is a cool friend of mine when I met him back in Jakarta, and also in Singapore at the DesignEdge 2005. He's art direction for Agrikulture is simply blast-fully out of this world. This band's latest album is called 'Dawai Damai' which I encourage you guys to buy, especially those who like funk experimental electronicas. The album is absaf'*%inglutely amazing. It moves you to that weird creative drive that you can wake up at 2 am to do non-stop illustration or artwork. Very hypnofunk!

Today's Interview Session

Q: How serious you want to improve in your photography?
A: I want to do more editing. More hard-work, more tone-mapping, more HDR, more paranomic shots, more lightings, more space, more layers, and more equipments especially lenses.

Q: who are your most inspiration in photography?
A: Danielle Levitt and Dave Hill, nuff said! ;)

Q: what about art & design communication? who are the ones who inspired you from day one?
A: The late Ismail Zain, Mohd Noor, Tan Jin Ho, Yazid (Zid), Aadi Salman, Shieko, Thalia & Ari, Joshua Davis, Drew Europheo, Yugop, John Leigh (Karborn), Mike Young & Marcus Erricson (Subdisc).

Q: Muid, what is Your Aim in 2008?
A: To be able to develop an interactive website with my oriental style. I'm currently short-listing potential clients and hope I can brink 'da funk' in 'traditional' design back in the 21st Century through new media revolution.

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Whenever You're Around

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:05:00 +0000

Whenever You're Around

I'll let you choose the colors in the sky,
So we both can create rainbows of affection,
I promise to lead you the way to my heart,
So I won't be in a solitude space.

I saw a spark of territory tend to divide us,
but when I close my eyes,
I see nothing can come between us,
because your strong will and adoration conquers me.

I heart for a cure to heal me,
from such painful damaged years,
Somehow slowly recovering,
To seek a hope that will set me free..

-

New Work: Orcanius, New Jpod Baby born!

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:04:00 +0000

I promise Alvaro that I will be publishing my new work on my blog so here goes.

I am very happy and joyful to hear the news from Orcagirl about the new Jpod Baby born. Thanks to Orcagirl for the linkup. Truly honored and flattered. Congratulations! Check out her blog here.

The raw sketch had been made when I was at the Photoshopworld Asia 2007 together with Yahoo! Flickr Malaysia group on November the 6th, and this artwork is actually dedicated to my dear friend who's an environmentalist who is now in Mexico looking after the adorable killer whale name Orca.

I decided to use very minimal duo tone colors. I will be producing more of this soon, after my visit to Niah Caves in Miri, Borneo this weekend.

above is the brief artwork process like what I did for Merdeka series.

A Happy Deepavali

To all my Indian friend who's celebrating Deepavali, wishing you guys a great holiday and may the lights colors your life with love, prosperity and happiness to you and your loved ones.

_

Malaysia: Jobless Malaysians?

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:15:00 +0000

Written by Muid Latif, edited by Aniqah Husda

It's pretty sad that albeit the 4,000 thousand graduates with great untapped talents that were produced annually have not been able to fulfill the relatively few job vacancies from local creative and advertising field. It is with great insult that the nation's best 3D animators, compositors and GUI designers are recruited by international companies abroad such Codemaster, not that it is an insult to the employee or employer per se, but since we have an embedded stigma that the foreign (i.e anything that spells white) is better, we forgo our local talents and lose them out to the big guns overseas.

Same goes with most other professions anyway, but the field of creative multimedia and advertising is uniquely localized and hiring foreigners who have no clue of our circumstantial differences does not really help the country go forward. Hindsight, we are still too far behind and if not well-planned outright, our future talents would just be "born in Malaysia - made elsewhere in the world."

Are the policy makers in this country aware of the following facts?

Did you know that China is extensively recruiting good designers from Malaysia and now most of them 'migrated' to Shanghai & Beijing to work in a better job opportunities with better payment.

Did you know when I wanted to approach the graduates from local colleges such as The One Academy, all the top students had been booked by other agencies from Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong?

Did you know that to apply for a job in Malaysia is like applying to become a model in a modeling agencies? Local companies are getting more superficial and requires candidates to have looks more important than a portfolio. (I'm talking from experience!).

Did u know that a lot of Art Directors & Creative Directors in local advertising / interactive agencies are 'managed' by expats? It's not bad, but does this prove we have no standards and quality AT ALL to achieve such position? or

Are we that prejudice over our own talents that we bank our trust on the future of the creative and advertising field in the hands of short-term/contract workforce whose loyalty to Malaysian brands are questionable?

Of recent, I was offered a vacancy by few parties (some very famous and popular international brand firms) in China due to my reliable merits, strong work credentials and sound portfolio (hope I don't sound too boastful or condescending but I am fully confident of my work). However, I've decided to remain in Malaysia backed by strong faith that there is hope still for the expansion of local talents. Having said that, my fire is fading fast and I've contemplated moving to greener pastures if things doesn't work out here and the local employees/agencies are still in their post-colonial mentality.

An existing scenario prevails; if all the good designers had received offers to work abroad (Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Canada, etc) that leaves us the mediocre designers struggling for survival and left misguided with the notion they are never good enough in their alma mater.

One last note; I've discovered some good designers (previously evaluated and ranked by qualified professionals back in university) working as Direct Selling Agents, Bank Officers and Sales Assistant in Carrefour, Giant, McDonalds, Starbucks, and the list goes on. People still need to eat yeah? And that Art School Degree is left wasted.

Does anyone really care?

Work Updates: LAMU Project

I would like to thank Wing, Saubin, and the rest of the LAMU committee members including our sponsors and KTM to give us the opportunity to realize the vision of the project that I'm involved with, Let Art Moves You (L.A.M.U) is also on the way, with my newest artwork. It was a great launch. Finally, some exposure! ;)

More photos can be found in my Flickr page here.

Four (4) of my artwork installed in train no. 39 is just mesmerizing. This exhibition also runs until 4th of November 2007 among other artists such as my friend Shieko, Orkibal, Donna and others.

My artwork also mentioned in TheStar Metro Saturday and New Straits Time Sunday. Article 1 via NST Sunday, Article 2 via NST Sunday People, KakiSeni & TheStar Metro.

Personal experimental:

New digital artwork by Muid Latif in collaboration with notable Malaysian photographer, Johan Sopiee. Congrats Johan on his special occasion last week! ;)

Photography:

Title: A Solitude Mutiny
Model: Afiqah.
Thank you to KLFlickr group for making this photo as winner of 10th weekly theme competition.

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Happy Eid Mubarak / Eid Ul Fitr

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:20:00 +0000

I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you a blessed Eid Mubarak. Thanks for all your support and looking forward to see you guys in my (*ehhemm*) open house second week of Raya (by invitation only, special privilege to my fellow KLlickr).

Family portrait (Gambar raya) with my brother in law's parents.
This is eventually my first day of Raya.

To Kamal, Ezat, Hasnul's (G&K), I couldn't spend my Raya happily if it wasn't for you guys! Thanks and much hugs. And guys, thank you for sending those beautiful sms'es and greetings cards (Wan Peng, unexpected, and really appreciate it). I have not been getting those in years. Note to Teong Hin, Adibah Noor, Kevin Zahri, abang Mahathir Lokman, Steve Bristow and many more, thanks for your kind greetings!

Have a nice festive holiday!

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Mubarak: 'Are we seeing but not looking?'

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:18:00 +0000

Quote:

During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam as well as refraining from lying, stealing, anger, envy, greed, lust, sarcastic retorts, backbiting, and gossip.
- wikipedia.

I'm certainly sure that Ramadan is a month not only to fast on food, but also to do more good-doings in our lives, 'behave' ourselves from our almost daily routine, including not to 'poke' any parts of our body (if you know what I mean) and not to curse. As for me, it's definitely a challenge especially when it comes to driving on the road. I can be a humble, patient driver but once a slow-ass driver tried to irritate me, then I would have a little 'concern'. Well, I actually do get used to it now and then, especially when I listen to Astrud Gilberto or Erykah Badu while driving. But despite all that, commuting from my place to my work in Cyberjaya definitely drained me out, seriously. I felt bad for not be able to have energy like I used to do back in the days, where I go for tarawih (muslim prayers each nite for Ramadan) and have more time then ever. I guess it may be the process of age or my digestion disorder syndrome that I'm still having. Maybe someway it had effected my health condition.

My current Facebook room. Send some items to my room. My new facebook friends also includes Hillman Curtis, Niko Stumpo, Andi Rianto (Indonesian talented producer, Jeff Ooi and much more. Come join us!

Well, normally after my iftar (and supper), I will be online checking my emails and my recent addiction to Facebook (FB) due to it's amazing architecture information (a.i) and it's usability. I do watch TV (National Geographic, Animal Planet) or chat with my sister or my parents. I can't sleep, especially if I had meal, at least not in 1 hour.

Work Updates

Creative Commons Malaysia

I had recently been active (online) in two groups for Creative Commons Malaysia. One is the flickr MyCC group and CCM on Facebook (FB). By the way, I heard Microsoft is trying to buy the famous social networking, Facebook.I hope FB won't be having so many restrictions, bugs and so many patches updates later if Microsoft to buy facebook. I remember, when Hotmail was bought by Microsoft, I receive more spams.

Back to CC, I'm planning to have a Creative Commons Day in November, since too much things to prepare. The merchandising might took a while, while I have to carefully select good people to join my talk / workshop. I will soon give a talk and demonstrate on how to get creative with Creative Commons. Info will be posted in this blog soon.

As a (young) photographer.

I've been exposed to photography over 3 years but this year is in fact the most serious time I got involved. I believe photography is another great escapism and challenge. I work with great people for the industry and they had taught me a lot. I remember working with few professional photographers like Jeffrey Tan, Ted Adnan and other photographer from advertising agency for some shots in their works and others. In the past few months, I have the opportunity to attend some workshop and talks that was given by Zainal Halim (Reuters) and manage to watch together with my friends from the Flickr Malaysia group of an amazing documentary of James Nachtwey, War Photographer.

Another paid talent work after experimental shot for Landrover Malaysia, this is my third work as a talent. To those who told how ugly I was back in my college years, this is the ugly boy you see in some products and ads.

Last two weeks, we (me, Salmi & Abby) had a slumber party at our place (despite me being the only guy, doesn't make me an alien), besides having late night snacks on our iftar, I took the opportunity to explore lights with my photography (knowledge). I'm pretty excited to get myself serious in this. Edri had also offer me to sell some of her lens and hopefully to get 3 hot items by this year.

This is my sister Abby, yesterday was her 25th birthday (25th Sept) and I'm celebrating her birthday together with our friends at Atilia's gig in (Raja) Chulan square, this Saturday. Feel free to join or drop by Abby's blog. Happy birthday girl! I hope in this year had taught you the meaning of life and career survival. Keep up the good work and always trust your talent and gift that you have.

L.A.M.U, Let Arts Move You

I believe this time it would be official that I will be joining the LAMU project with KTM Malaysia where me, Shieko and the rest of the artist will have the opportunity to showcase our artworks in KTM Commuter trains and even the KL Sentral KTM Commuter stations. I believe this is a great opportunity for me to get back and connect with my art skills, which I had abandon since Merdeka this year.

Feel free to visit LAMU @ DMP here.

Life Updates: If I hold a hand again, it will not be me, it will be free.

I am not invisible, because others let me see what’s in their heart,
I am not fragile, because I can be strong to stand on my feet,
I am not evil, because I help people in anyway I can so I learn my mistakes,
I am not humble, because some times I need to brag to build my confidence,
I am not a saint, but a sinner to my unperfected existence,
I am not a free, but I let others free by doing the right thing,
I am not safe, because my life will be in the hands of the Al-Mighty,
I am not solitude, because I have people who love me.

Getting myself back stabbed has been a natural story, but not to the recent 3-4 months ago. Adding to that, even 'another person' have dark deadly revenge on me and try to find a way to threaten my friends and family, there are also few individuals (hint: ex-employer) who's bound to take me down due to his impulsive decision. If he was kind, respectful and humble, he would have been a good friend, and a lot of great opportunity would roll in his way. Out of all people, they are people who I had been close to, and they are the people that I had help to build their motivation and support their career or company. It’s the time I’ve been pushed away and they thought I was weak. The case I’m in now is very clear and I will know one thing I am certainly sure of what to do and what solution I can think off. I will rise from my fall, I will stand up and work even harder and make new friends who see my potential and support my battle for survival. I will keep moving on and I will never look back.

To the recent art scene ‘fanatics’ who had been questioning my seldom appearance in exhibitions and events, I’m not dead. I’ve been in full creative practice to ensure I will go further, upgrading my skill sets to keep up with others, and the trends. Like everyone else, I have a lot of commitment and I choose to concentrate on most priority in my career and family.

Notification: You got a friend! One (1) Unread Message

Photos by the talented Eka.

From left (counter-clockwise): Muid, Johan, Edri, Ena, Mizie, JingYing, Victor, Wira, Grom Airess, Magnus (Azami), Prakash, Abby & Eka.

This is not the kind of buddies that you like to meet once in blue moon that says hello and bye-bye. I had made a very strong relationship with a bunch of low-profile, humble and friendly people from Flickr group, they kept me warm and let me be myself, without putting a barrier or walls between them. They are my new family and they had help push my small limit and talent in photographer one step further. I thank to all my KL Flickr members for accepting me, rather than pushing me away. I love you guys very much and thanks for accepting me.

Catching with old friends

My new 'family'.

Last weekend on the 27th September, I managed to take my friend out for a hang out in Bangkok Jazz; Nadiah Aziz in conjunction of Abby's belated birthday in Atilia's show. It was awesome! Anyway, Nadiah has been my best friend way back when I studied in UiTM. It was the era of knowing Modestos (no pun intend), working on art projects at late nights while listening to Beatsie Boys & Prodigy, and what not. Nadiah was the only friend I am close to talk about anything. It's like whatever I had in my closet, she knows ;). We plan on meeting regularly soon.

About three days ago, I also received a message from my dear friend Noni from Penang about our upcoming reunion this December. I’m pretty excited about this because I like to meet my old friends and have a good time together. However, there are some friends from our past who always refuse to join. He likes to put a great barrier in any relationship or friendship, and that is Zamri Azizan. He questions why we need to have reunion each year. It’s not right at all. There’s no such rule on when a reunion should be made. From my observation on last year’s reunion, I’m so happy to see all of us stay together, chit-chatting, wrapping up gifts, preparing dinner and sit down together to have a nice barbecue. I guess some people don’t want to keep friendship and mutual relationship. And it’s pathetic to live alone full of negative surroundings and without people who really care and loves you.

Outro:

Last but not lease, my deepest condolence and prayer goes out to our beloved Nurin, who had been brutally abused and murdered. Visit the late Nurin's Uncle's blog here. Visit Screenshot and let's us all pray that kids can still go out at the playground.

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Have a great fasting month, and great week guys!

The Buzzing Bee

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:39:00 +0000

Have I been away from the art & design world? Apparently not. With the duration of two months, besides preparing myself to collaborate with Shieko for LAMU / KTM project (Credits to Roopes & Mr. Wing!), I had came up with few artworks, to be precise, my Merdeka Art Series for the Merdeka 50 years Anniversary. This series will also combined with my other oriental art series for my upcoming solo exhibition by end of 2007. I had already talk to Izu from Galleriiizu and agreed on making a solo exhibition, this time I would like to travel throughout Malaysia and South East Asia promoting my oriental art series.

My study case of my artwork. As you can see, the floral decorative with Batik influence was applied for my artwork to create more organic freedom. The one-piece raw illustration was repeated to create a balance. Choosing the right color is the most important factor and it surely need a lot of time.

Final Artwork. The 3 main color (red, yellow and blue) are mixed together. All the four (4) colors represent Jalur Gemilang, the Malaysia National Flag. Instead of the typical stripes of red and white, I intend to put more depth and vibe to create a harmonious mood. It works well and I like the outcome. Using Adobe Illustrator surely ease my artwork to be printed on canvas, in any size desired. This final artwork will be printed A0 size, and the cost to print this is very expensive ;)

Photography Galore

I managed to 'bertapa' (meditate) in the duration of two (2) months to polish my photography skills with my fellow Flickr group members (among them is the talented Syahrin Aziz, Awi (Shafina's cousin), Eka Putra, Johan, Matt Marzuki, Nik 'Waa', Iskandar, Ted Adnan, Danny Lim and other great photographers).

Ms. Dina

This month and last month, I had also manage to get interviewed by two party, one is a good friend and a strong fan of Digital Malaya Project, Syed from Sireh & Cengkeh and one more, surprisingly from ABC Network, Australia for a TV program called 'NOISE', which features artists and designers from all over the world and have few minutes to talk about their artworks and creation. Anyway, a big thanks to Desmond, the director for Saladin: The Making, of Saladin team for featuring me (few seconds je) along the rest of the talented Saladin team in The Making of Saladin in Astro Ria, dated 31st of August 2007, 2.30 pm. (feel free to drop by Desmond's Jalan Petaling Online Shopping Portal). Just two days ago, I found out a dear friend of mine, Atilia, mentioned that she also had voice Anisa, one of the characters in Saladin 3D animated series.

With Emily & Derrek from NOISE.

Find out more on my interview with Syed, here. You can also visit NOISE website for more info. Videos will be uploaded soon in YouTube by Jay Lim.

Being Addictive

It's been over two month most of us from the industry had been 'attacked' by the new age of Friendster / Myspace for grown ups and professionals, Facebook.com. With over 30 million users and still growing, I can't take my sight of this cool personalized networking community portal which rocks big time! with web version 2.0 compliant. With facebook, I got the chance to hook up with industrial professionals and it's been such a privillage to be able to communicate with people like Datuk Paduka Marina Mahathir, Datin Tiara Jacquelina, my friends like Atilia, Teong Hin, long lost buddies and many more. I know some function can be so irritating, like the group / 3rd party plugin invites. Nevertheless, it's so addictive!

I had also created the Creative Commons Malaysia Flickr Group (MyCC). This is one of my possible move to reach out more Malaysians and others to support this campaign as much as possible. It's good to see a lot of people starting to support CCM group. Feel free to visit our group here.

My sister Aniq, Abby & me.

Last Saturday, I had my good night enjoying Atilia live show at Wine Room, Kuala Lumpur. It's good to see people who have similar music interest enjoy the show. This is probably a great escape from sitting in my room reading novels and comics, or watching anime, over and over again. We went to the Indian restaurant nearby and my sister and her husband join us. A rare moment to see all of us together. It reminds me of the 'way back when' days with me and my sister's friends in those groovy nights.

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Muid in Polaroid!

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Muid in Polaroid!
Originally uploaded by moedlativ

Went to Yahoo! Flickr 24-Hours Party in Maison, Kuala Lumpur. It was the far most greatest thing that happen to me. Besides good range of light refreshment and great liquor, I met new friends, I developed a new passion for photography. A great way to release a creative tension.

Check out the rest of my set here and visit Flickr Malaysia group here.

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Happy Times Presents:

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:00:00 +0000

What a day! Another creative journey

More photos at my flickr here.

To find yourself having a nice Chamomile Lemon Tea with nice Vanilla Ice Cream Waffle with your friend during the afternoon on a weekday is something to remember. Here, I am in a modern and ever soothing relaxing jazzy environment café here in Senai Airport called ‘Lavender’ is just one of the calmest moments I have. Forget about Coffee Bean or Starbucks, as I would uplift you with this lovely place. Of course, that is if you ever want to plan a trip to Johor.

Yesterday, I had a chance, once again to share my experiences and creative inputs on my talk together with my colleague, Junning and also Hasnul Nadzrin (from MDeC / Saladin) in conjunction of the Johor’s Week of Science Technology and Information in Persada Johor. We arrived at the Senai Airport and went straight to Persada Johor without checking into the Puteri Pacific Hotel and went to give our talks in just seconds.

Out of all the talk I had presented, this is the first slow start for me as I had to cover a topics which is hard to explain in words, because you need to show some graphs and slides, especially in telling the audience about the creative content initiative and it's industry. (Mental block!). I normally do spontaneous and selamba (however pre-arranged). I like to do more humour in my talk so people will alert and keep up with me. My session, is actually on the topic 'Generating Ideas & Creativity through Interactivity'. Gladly, I told the organizers to shift my talk that was supposed to be on the evening slot to the morning one. It was a relief. The crowd was very good and they are quite responsive. The talk, is a part of the program invited MDeC’s creative representatives and joining with us is the familiar lectures from UTM, Mr. Shahrizal of the Games & Multimedia Development and also the most coolest professor I met, Prof. Saruddin Kari. My God, if I am his student, I’d be a glad one!

More photos at my flickr here.

At evening, I and Junning went to the gym to so-called ‘hypern’ ourselves and later we went to Danga Bay together with Ezat. We went for food survey and was attracted with a nice sambal smell and went to that restaurant. Well, smell can also be deceiving, we had the unfortunate dinner ever by having the same ‘template’ of sambal for ‘kerang rebus’ that cost RM15 and a stray fish that cost RM35 bucks. To satisfy with our unfortunate treat, we were companied by two pakcik who ‘melalak’ and sang some ‘dangdut-tekno’ song, at a karaoke stage. I swear we would just swallow the whole plate of the stray fish.

To fix our emotionally distress over our bad dinner, we went to the funfair! Wait, near the funfair. We walk around the shop lots and saw this gerai (shop) where they rent out trishaw for a ride. So we decided to take one. It was a sweaty blast of cycle around the block before we head back to the hotel.

More photos at my flickr here.

Once we're back in the hotel, I went to the room and crash on the bed. But I couldn't get myself to sleep so I went down to have a cigi and walk few blocks from the hotel. I went pass the temple around the corner and surprised to see few hookers 'hangin out' on the streets opposite the temple. Man, these people surely don't have respect for their religion to do 'business' in front of their god. Anyway, I went up to the bus station and when I was about to head back to the hotel, a bike stop me in the middle of the road. I was terrified as a guy was looking fierily at me. That time, just imagine, there's nothing with me except my hotel card and my mobile phone. Then this guy look at me and ask, 'Engkau tak kenal aku ke?'. Then he open up his helmet and do that hair-bouncing prince charming from The Shrek, acah je!, then he open up his helmet and smiled. I got shocked plus excited and shout Cikoi! His name is actually Iwan. He was a long time buddy of mine back in Kem Terendak, 1995. He was one of those in high school who protect geek like me at that time from kena bully. I never expect to see him there, especially at that time. So we had a chat for few minutes and told me to drop by his mum's shop in Kotaraya Mall, few walks from the hotel. Then I went back to the hotel and he went off.

Next morning, I went to see his (Cikoi's) mum. We (family) call her 'mek'. (Those who don't know, Mek is a name that Kelantanese used to called for their daughter). Aunty Mek is actually our babysitter for Hafiz and Afiqah back in Malacca. Aunty Mek invite me to meet up with her husband just around the corner, so we go off to the restaurant (warung) at the roadside just opposite Persada Johor.

You know, it's good to see them, the whole family again. Actually meeting them make me learn more about life and felt blessed for what I have now. They had been struggle and work so hard to make a living by selling snacks from crackers and chips to cookies and local-made bahulu (a type of cake). I couldn't imagine myself more when aunt Mek would hug me from her side and hold my hand all the way to the 'warung'. It was sweet indeed. She really make me felt like her son. I was very touched. (Not in Anna Nicole Smith kinda way okay). I like to see people like them. They inspired me and make me felt so grateful. It's so different to compare them to some anak dato who only whine about their parents not giving enough money to buy luxurious things in life or complain about not getting a hot chic by their side.

More photos at my flickr here.

Before we take a cab to the airport, we went to have some light photography around the hotel. Then we took off.

Reality Again

Now that I'm back in the office, I had a very semi-bad muscle pain due to 2 days workout at the gym in the hotel. Now, happy times over, I got many things on my plate now.

Just to tell you guys that I will be spending my time with a very good friend of mine from Philippines this weekend. His name is Martin Gomez, a talented programmer and a well known person in the ICT / Creative Industry in Manila. I believe he now with MIT of Philippines and he's here until end of the month, and I just hope to bring him around as much as possible. He is the guy who made me famous in Philippines by having me to be one of the final judges for the Philippines Web Awards few years back. Anyway, I also would like to (hopefully) check out Perez's gig collaboration with Indonesia's Goodnight Electric at Laundry, this Saturday. I love that band (been hearin' it from 'Janji Joni' Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).

Last week, I went to see Atilia, one of noted jazz singer together with Abby at Alexis. I think I had a blastful weekend. It was all good.

Artwork Updates:

This is my artwork for Merdeka / Independence Day 50th Anniversary. Final work will be available at my website soon. I will talk about this artwork, color template and the creative process soon. Insya'Allah.

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Listening to Common, Dwele, Mos Def, DeLaSoul, Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq, Nas, Q-Tip, Atilia, Harvey Malaiholo, Park Drive and Madlib.

Transformers Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Muid Latif) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:05:00 +0000

My dream came true (yeah baby!).Though Michael Bay didn’t bring the best of transformers for their die-hard-fan (macam saya), but it’s worth watching. I mean, come on, can’t expect every freakin’ transformers to be in the movie right? But I bet there’s Transformers 2, and hopefully ada Omega Supreme or Fortress Maximus atau Metroplex. Cool eh? Although the game for PSP was f****ng boring, I still watch it few times in the cinema. (Hopefully to be on IMAX). I’m sure by now, all transformers collectors are increasing their current collector price to $$$$ (4 digits) Ringgit Malaysia.

Here’s my recent transformers collection

Yang Baik (Autobots), mostly Takara version.

Yang Jahat (Decepticons). R.I.P. to my Insecticons, Starscream G1 & Demolisher. Sedey.. Ni semua gara orang gaji yg tak tahu menahu pasal kepentingan toys aku. Boleh tak dia buang time kitaorang pindah from Kem Sg. Besi to Selayang. Aku redha...

To calculate the total of my transformers collection, I spend more than RM4,971 since 2002 excluding DVD collection and other merchandise. Gosh, I can get a new MacBook with that figure. Tapi sayang pulak nak jual all my stuff kat eBay. Let me keep this as my only permanent hobby. (Tapi tak leh lawan my boss, giler satu rumah penuh koleksi from A-Z). Kalah Afdlin Shauki). More of my Transformers Collection @ My Flickr. Talk about hobby, my new hobby is playing PSP! yeay! (Gosh, macam budak2... umur dah nak dekat masuk 30 tahun).

TF Wishlist (jer!, bukan confirm beli):

Optimus Prime Electronic Mask (Macam not necessary)
Bumblebee (TF Movie version)
Optimus Prime (TF Movie version)
Ultra Magnus Masterpiece
Starscream Energon

And I know all of these stuff I can get at only oooonne (1) place, that closes at 3 o’clock in the morning, right here in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. But having said that, I will be spending my money buying a very freaking cool WACOM tablet for improving and increasing my illustration skills using Photoshop CS. Better right?

_Work Updates:

Illustrations:

And my sketch of a robot tengah membaca. Very cute one.

I have to do it since everyone in the office starts to illustrate their own version of transformers including Junning, Iman & Eisu.. Duh!

'Dambaan Jiwaku', My first LP CD, Edited by Kromosom / Keribang

Talk: ‘Generating Creativity Through Interactivity’
I will be flying to Johor Bahru to give a talk on ‘Generating Creativity Through Interactivity’ together with my big man, ‘Kanye West’ & Ke’Kamal’lan under MSC Malaysia Creative Multimedia Content Initiative (CMCI) program on the 24-25th of July.

2nd’Exhibition: 7 July 2007 (7/7/7)
Digital Malaya will be showcasing it’s demoreel and my second public art performance at Central Market for the grand opening of 7/7 Malaysia First Digital Art Gallery. I will be rework on ‘Body Movement’ performance with a wyyeeeetle bit of contemporary dance for the gimmick launch. Nak tengok muid buat aksi lipat roti canai dan teknik sakit urat badan, teknik tangkap biawak, mari sama-sama ke Central Market Art Zone this 7th of July, 7pm!

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I still miss my Perodua Kancil. I will never forget you!